The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Personal Life Of David Livingstone
by William Garden Blaikie
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Title: The Personal Life Of David Livingstone
Author: William Garden Blaikie
Release Date: August 23, 2004 [EBook #13262]
Language: English
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THE PERSONAL LIFE
OF
DAVID LIVINGSTONE
LL.D., D.C.L.
CHIEFLY FROM HIS UNPUBLISHED
JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE
IN THE POSSESSION OF HIS FAMILY
BY
W. GARDEN BLAIKIE, D.D., LLD.
_Author of "Heroes of Israel," etc._
PREFACE.
The purpose of this work is to make the world better acquainted with the
character of Livingstone. His discoveries and researches have been given
to the public in his own books, but his modesty led him to say little in
these of himself, and those who knew him best feel that little is known
of the strength of his affections, the depth and purity of his devotion,
or the intensity of his aspirations as a Christian missionary. The
growth of his character and the providential shaping of his career are
also matters of remarkable interest, of which not much has yet been
made known.
An attempt has been made in this volume, likewise, to present a more
complete history of his life than has yet appeared. Many chapters of it
are opened up of which the public have hitherto known little or nothing.
It has not been deemed necessary to dwell on events recorded in his
published Travels, except for the purpose of connecting the narrative
and making it complete. Even on these, however, it has been found that
not a little new light and color may be thrown from his correspondence
with his friends and his unpublished Journals.
Much pains has been taken to show the unity and symmetry of his
character. As a man, a Christian, a missionary, a philanthropist, and a
scientist, Livingstone ranks with the greatest of our race, and shows
the minimum of infirmity in connection with the maximum of goodness.
Nothing can be more telling than his life as an evidence of the truth
and power of Christianity, as a plea for Christian Missions and
civilization, or as a demonstration of the true connection between
religion and science.
So many friends have helped in this book that it is impossible to thank
all in a preface. Most of them are named in the body of the work.
Special acknowledgments, however, are due to the more immediate members
of Dr. Livingstone's family, at whose request the work was undertaken;
also to his sisters, the Misses Livingstone, of Hamilton, to Mr. Young,
of Kelley, to the venerable Dr. Moffat, and Mrs. Vavasseur, his
daughter. The use of valuable collections of letters has been given by
the following (in addition to the friends already named): The Directors
of the London Missionary Society; Dr. Risdon Bennett; Rev. G.D. Watt;
Rev. Joseph Moore; Rev. W. Thompson, Cape Town; J.B. Braithwaite, Esq.;
representatives of the late Sir R.I. Murchison, Bart., and of the late
Sir Thomas Maclear; Rev. Horace Waller, Mr. and Mrs. Webb, of Newstead
Abbey, Mr. P. Fitch, of London, Rev. Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, and
Senhor Nunes, of Quilimane. Other friends have forwarded letters of less
importance. Some of the letters have reached the hands of the writer
after the completion of the book, and have therefore been used but
sparingly.
The recovery of an important private journal of Dr. Livingstone, which
had been lost at the time when the _Missionary Travels_ was published,
has thrown much new light on the part of his life immediately preceding
his first great journey.
In the spelling of African proper names, Dr. Moffat has given valuable
help. Usually Livingstone's own spelling has been followed.
A Map has been specially prepared, in which the geographical references
in the volume are shown, which will enable the reader to follow
Livingstone's movements from place to place.
With so much material, it would have been easier to write a life in two
volumes than in one; but for obvious reasons it has been deemed
desirable to restrict it to the present limits. The author could wish
for no higher honor than to have his name associated with that of
Livingstone, and can desire no greater pleasure than that of conveying
to other minds the impressions that have been left on his own.
W.G. BLAIKIE.
EDINBUBGH, 9 PALMERSTON BOAD.
1880
CONTENTS.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
EARLY YEARS.
A.D. 1813-1836.
Ulva--The Livingstones--Traditions of Ulva life--The
"Baughting-time"--"Kirsty's Rock"--Removal of Livingstone's grandfather
to Blantyre--Highland blood--Neil Livingstone--His marriage to Agnes
Hunter--Her grandfather and father--Monument to Neil and Agnes
Livingstone in Hamilton Cemetery--David Livingstone born 19th March,
1813--Boyhood--At home--In school--David goes into Blantyre Mill--First
earnings--Night-school--His habits of reading--Natural-history
expeditions--Great spiritual changes in his twentieth year--Dick's
_Philosophy of a Future State_--He resolves to be a
missionary--Influence of occupation of Blantyre--Sympathy with
People--Thomas Burke and David Hogg--Practical character of
his religion.
CHAPTER II.
MISSIONARY PREPARATION.
A.D. 1836-1840.
His desire to be a missionary to China--Medical missions--He studies at
Glasgow--Classmates and teachers--He applies to London Missionary
Society--His ideas of mission-work--He is accepted provisionally--He
goes to London--to Ongar--Reminiscences by Rev. Joseph Moore--by Mrs.
Gilbert--by Rev. Isaac Taylor--Nearly rejected by the Directors--Returns
to Ongar--to London--Letter to his sister--Reminiscences by Dr. Risdon
Bennett--Promise to Professor Owen--Impression of his character on his
friends and fellow-students--Rev R. Moffat in England--Livingstone
interested--Could not be sent to China--Is appointed to
Africa--Providential links in his history--Illness--Last visits to his
home--Receives Medical diploma--Parts from his family.
CHAPTER III.
FIRST TWO YEARS IN AFRICA.
A.D. 1842-1843.
His ordination--Voyage out--At Rio de Janeiro--At the Cape--He proceeds
to Kuruman--Letters--Journey of 700 miles to Bechuana
country--Selection of site for new station--Second excursion to
Bechuana country--Letter to his sister--Influence with
chiefs--Bubi--Construction of a water-dam--Sekomi--Woman seized by a
lion--The Bakaa--Sebehwe--Letter to Dr. Risdon Bennett--Detention at
Kuruman--He visits Sebehwe's village--Bakhatlas--Sechéle, chief of
Bakwains--Livingstone translates hymns--Travels 400 miles on
oxback--Returns to Kuruman--Is authorized to form new station--Receives
contributions for native missionary--Letters to Directors on their
Mission policy--He goes to new station--Fellow-travelers--Purchase of
site--Letter to Dr. Bennett--Desiccation of South Africa--Death of a
servant, Sehamy--Letter to his parents.
CHAPTER IV.
FIRST TWO STATIONS--MABOTSA AND CHONUANE.
A.D. 1843-1847.
Description of Mabotsa--A favorite hymn--General reading--Mabotsa
infested with lions--Livingstone's encounter--The native deacon who
saved him--His Sunday-school--Marriage to Mary Moffat--Work at
Mabotsa--Proposed institution for training native agents--Letter to his
mother--Trouble at Mabotsa--Noble sacrifice of Livingstone--Goes to
Sechéle and the Bakwains--New station at Chonuane--Interest shown by
Sechéle--Journeys eastward--The Boers and the Transvaal--Their
occupation of the country, and treatment of the natives--Work among the
Bakwains--Livingstone's desire to move on--Theological conflict at
home--His view of it--His scientific labors and miscellaneous
employments.
CHAPTER V.
THIRD STATION--KOLOBENG.
A.D. 1847-1852.
Want of rain at Chonuane--Removal to Kolobeng--House-building and public
works--Hopeful prospects--Letters to Mr. Watt, his sister, and Dr.
Bennett--The church at Kolobeng--Pure communion--Conversion of
Sechéle--Letter from his brother Charles--His history--Livingstone's
relations with the Boers--He cannot get native teachers planted in the
east--Resolves to explore northward--Extracts from Journal--Scarcity of
water--Wild animals, and other risks--Custom-house robberies and
annoyances--Visit from Secretary of London Missionary Society--Manifold
employments of Livingstone--Studies in Sichuana--His reflection on this
period of his life while detained at Manyuema in 1870.
CHAPTER VI.
KOLOBENG _continued_--LAKE 'NGAMI.
A.D. 1849-1852.
Koboleng failing through drought--Sebituane's country and the Lake
'Ngami--Livingstone sets out with Messrs. Oswell and Murray--Rivers
Zouga and Tamanak'le--Old ideas of the interior
revolutionized--Enthusiasm of Livingstone--Discovers Lake
'Ngami--Obliged to return--Prize from Royal Geographical Society--Second
expedition to the lake, with wife and children--Children attacked by
fever--Again obliged to return--Conviction as to healthier spot
beyond--Idea of finding passage to sea either west or east--Birth and
death of a child--Family visits Kuruman--Third expedition, again with
family--He hopes to find a new locality--Perils of the journey--He
reaches Sebituane--The Chief's illness and death--Distress of
Livingstone--Mr. Oswell and he go on to Linyanti--Discovery of the Upper
Zambesi--No locality found for settlement--More extended journey
necessary--He returns--Birth of Oswell Livingstone--Crisis in
Livingstone's life--His guiding principles--New plans--The Makololo
begin to practice slave-trade--New thoughts about commerce--Letters to
Directors--The Bakwains--_Pros_ and _cons_ of his new plan--His unabated
missionary zeal--He goes with his family to the Cape--His
literary activity.
CHAPTER VII.
FROM THE CAPE TO LINYANTI.
A.D. 1852-1853.
Unfavorable feeling at Cape Town--Departure of Mrs. Livingstone and
children--Livingstone's detention and difficulties--Letter to his
wife--to Agnes--Occupations at Cape Town--The
Astronomer-Royal--Livingstone leaves the Cape and reaches
Kuruman--Destruction of Kolobeng by the Boers--Letters to his wife and
Rev. J. Moore--His resolution to open up Africa _or perish_--Arrival at
Linyanti--Unhealthiness of the country--Thoughts on setting out for
coast--Sekelétu's kindness--Livingstone's missionary activity--Death of
Mpepe, and of his father--Meeting with Ma-mochisane--Barotse
country--Determines to go to Loanda--Heathenism unadulterated--Taste for
the beautiful--Letter to his children--to his father--Last Sunday at
Linyanti--Prospect of his failing.
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA.
A.D. 1853-1854.
Difficulties and hardships of journey--His traveling kit--Four
books--His Journal--Mode of traveling--Beauty of country--Repulsiveness
of the people--Their religious belief--The negro--Preaching--The
magic-lantern--Loneliness of feeling--Slave-trade--Management of the
natives--Danger from Chiboque--from another chief--Livingstone ill of
fever--At the Quango--Attachment of followers--"The good time
coming"--Portuguese settlements--Great kindness of the
Portuguese--Arrives at Loanda--Received by Mr. Gabriel--His great
friendship--No letters--News through Mr. Gabriel--Livingstone becomes
acquainted with naval officers--Resolves to go back to Linyanti and make
for East Coast--Letter to his wife--Correspondence with Mr.
Maclear--Accuracy of his observations--Sir John Herschel--Geographical
Society award their gold medal--Remarks of Lord Ellesmere.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE.
A.D. 1854-1856.
Livingstone sets out from Loanda--Journey back--Effects of
slavery--Letter to his wife--Severe attack of fever--He reaches the
Barotse country--Day of thanksgiving--His efforts for the good of his
men--Anxieties of the Moffats--Mr. Moffat's journey to Mosilikatse--Box
at Linyanti--Letter from Mrs. Moffat--Letters to Mrs. Livingstone, Mr.
Moffat, and Mrs. Moffat--Kindness of Sekelétu--New escort--He sets out
for the East Coast--Discovers the Victoria Falls--The healthy
longitudinal ridges--Pedestrianism--Great dangers--Narrow
escapes--Triumph of the spirit of trust in God--Favorite
texts--Reference to Captain McClure's experience--Chief subjects of
thought--Structure of the continent--Sir Roderick Murchison anticipates
his discovery--Letters to Geographical Society--First letter from Sir
Roderick Murchison--Missionary labor--Monasteries--Protestant
mission-stations wanting in self-support--Letter to Directors--Fever not
so serious an obstruction as it seemed--His own hardships--Theories of
mission-work--Expansion _v_. Concentration--Views of a missionary
statesman--He reaches Tette--Letter to King of Portugal--to Sir Roderick
Murchison--Reaches Senna--Quilimane--Retrospect--Letter from
Directors--Goes to Mauritius--Voyage home--Narrow escape from shipwreck
in Bay of Tunis--He reaches England, Dec. 1856--News of his
father's death.
CHAPTER X.
FIRST VISIT HOME.
A.D. 1856-1857.
Mrs. Livingstone--Her intense anxieties--Her poetical
welcome--Congratulatory letters from Mrs. and Dr. Moffat--Meeting of
welcome of Royal Geographical Society--of London Missionary
Society--Meeting in Mansion House--Enthusiastic public meeting at Cape
Town--Livingstone visits Hamilton--Returns to London to write his
book--Letter to Mr. Maclear--Dr. Risdon Bennett's reminiscences of this
period--Mr. Frederick Fitch's--Interview with Prince
Consort--Honors--Publication and great success of _Missionary
Travels_--Character and design of the book--Why it was not more of a
missionary record--Handsome conduct of publisher--Generous use of the
profits--Letter to a lady in Carlisle vindicating the-character of
his speeches.
CHAPTER XI.
FIEST VISIT HOME--_continued_.
A.D. 1857-1858.
Livingstone at Dublin, at British Association--Letter to his wife--He
meets the chamber of commerce at Manchester--At Glasgow, receives honors
from Corporation, University, Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, United
Presbyterians, Cotton-spinners--His speeches in reply--His brother
Charles joins him--Interesting meeting and speech at Hamilton--Reception
from "Literary and Scientific Institute of Blantyre"--Sympathy with
operatives--Quick apprehension of all public questions--His social views
in advance of the age--He plans a People's Café--Visit to
Edinburgh--More honors--Letter to Mr. Maclear--Interesting visit to
Cambridge--Lectures there--Professor Sedgwick's remarks on his
visit--Livingstone's great satisfaction--Relations to London Missionary
Society--He severs his connection--Proposal of Government expedition--He
accepts consulship and command of Expedition--Kindness of Lords
Palmerston and Clarendon--The Portuguese Ambassador--Livingstone
proposes to go to Portugal--Is dissuaded--Lord Clarendon's letter to
Sekelétu--Results of Livingstone's visit to England--Farewell banquet,
February, 1858--Interview with the Queen--Veledictory letters--Professor
Sedgwick and Sir Roderick Murchison--Arrangements for Expedition--Dr.,
Mrs., and Oswald Livingstone set sail from Liverpool--Letters to
children.
CHAPTER XII.
THE ZAMBESI, AND FIRST EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRÉ.
A.D. 1858-1859.
Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone sail in the "Pearl"--Characteristic
instructions to members of Expedition--Dr. Livingstone conscious of
difficult position--Letter to Robert--Sierra Leone--Effects of British
Squadron and of Christian Missions--Dr. and Mrs. Moffat at Cape
Town--Splendid reception there--Illness of Mrs. Livingstone--She remains
behind--The five years of the Expedition--Letter to Mr. James Young--to
Dr. Moffat--Kongone entrance to Zambesi--Collision with Naval
Officer--Disturbed state of the country--Trip to Kebrabasa Rapids--Dr.
Livingstone applies for new steamer--Willing to pay for one
himself--Exploration of the Shiré--Murchison Cataracts--Extracts from
private Journal--Discovery of Lake Shirwa--Correspondence--Letter to
Agnes Livingstone--Trip to Tette--Kroomen and two members of Expedition
dismissed--Livingstone's vindication--Discovery of Lake Nyassa--Bright
hopes for the future--Idea of a colony--Generosity of
Livingstone--Letters to Mr. Maclear, Mr. Young, and Sir Roderick
Murchison--His sympathy with the "honest poor"--He hears of the birth of
his youngest daughter.
CHAPTER XIII.
GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO.
A.D. 1860.
Down to Kongone--State of the ship--Further delay--Letter to Secretary
of Universities Mission--Letter to Mr. Braithwaite--At Tette--Miss
Whately's sugar-mill--With his brother and Kirk at Kebrabasa--Mode of
traveling--Reappearance of old friends--African warfare and its
effects--Desolation--A European colony desirable--Escape from
rhinoceros--Rumors of Moffat--The Portuguese local Governors oppose
Livingstone--He becomes unpopular with them--Letter to Mr. Young--Wants
of the country--The Makololo--Approach home--Some are disappointed--News
of the death of the London missionaries, the Helmores and others--Letter
to Dr. Moffat--The Victoria Falls re-examined--Sekelétu ill of
leprosy--Treatment and recovery--His disappointment at not seeing Mrs.
Livingstone--Efforts for the spiritual good of the Makololo--Careful
observations in Natural History--The last of the "Ma-Robert"--Cheering
prospect of the Universities Mission--Letter to Mr. Moore--to Mr.
Young--He wishes another ship--Letter to Sir Roderick Murchison on the
rumored journey of Silva Porto.
CHAPTER XIV.
ROVUMA AND NYASSA--UNIVERSITIES MISSION.
A.D. 1861-1862.
Beginning of 1861--Arrival of the "Pioneer," and of the agents of
Universities Mission--Cordial welcome--Livingstone's catholic
feelings--Ordered to explore the Rovuma--Bishop Mackenzie goes with
him--Returns to the Shiré--Turning-point of prosperity past--Difficult
navigation--The slave-sticks--Bishop settles at Magomero--Hostilities
between Manganja and Ajawa--Attack of Mission party by
Ajawa--Livingstone's advice to Bishop regardin them--Letter to his son
Robert--Livingstone, Kirk, and Charles start for Lake Nyassa--Party
robbed at north of Lake--Dismal activity of the slave-trade--Awful
mortality in the process--Livingstone's fondness for _Punch_--Letter to
Mr. Young--Joy at departure of new steamer "Lady Nyassa"--Colonization
project--Letter against it from Sir R. Murchison--Hears of Dr. Stewart
coming out from Free Church of Scotland--Visit at the ship from Bishop
Mackenzie--News of defeat of Ajawa by missionaries--Anxiety of
Livingstone--Arrangements for "Pioneer" to go to Kongone for new steamer
and friends from home, then go to Ruo to meet Bishop--"Pioneer"
detained--Dr. Livingstone's anxieties and depression at New
Year--"Pioneer" misses man-of-war "Gorgon"--At length "Gorgon" appears
with brig from England and "Lady Nyassa"--Mrs. Livingstone and other
ladies on board--Livingstone's meeting with his wife, and with Dr.
Stewart--Stewart's recollections--Difficulties of navigation--Captain
Wilson of "Gorgon" goes up river and hears of death of Bishop Mackenzie
and Mr. Burrup--Great distress--Misrepresentations about Universities
Mission--Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup taken to "Gorgon"--Dr. and Mrs.
Livingstone return to Shupanga--Illness and death of Mrs. Livingstone
there--Extracts from Livingstone's Journal, and letters to the Moffats,
Agnes, and the Murchisons.
CHAPTER XV.
LAST TWO YEARS OF THE EXPEDITION.
A.D. 1862-1863.
Livingstone again buckles on his armor--Letter to Waller--Launch of
"Lady Nyassa"--Too late for season--He explores the Rovuma--Fresh
activity of the slave-trade--Letter to Governor of Mozambique about his
discoveries--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--Generous offer of a party of
Scotchmen--The Expedition proceeds up Zambesi with "Lady Nyassa" in
tow--Appalling desolations of Marianno--Tidings of the Mission--Death of
Scudamore--of Dickenson--of Thorton--Illness of Livingstone--Dr. Kirk
and Charles Livingstone go home--He proceeds northward with Mr. Rae and
Mr. E. D. Young of the "Gorgon"--Attempt to carry a boat over the
rapids--Defeated--Recall of the Expedition--Livingstone's views--Letter
to Mr. James Young--to Mr. Waller--Feeling of the Portuguese
Government--Offer to the Rev. Dr. Stewart--Great discouragements--Why
did he not go home?--Proceeds to explore Nyassa--Risks and
sufferings--Occupation of his mind--Natural History--Obliged to turn
back--More desolation--Report of his murder--Kindness of
Chinsamba--Reaches the ship--Letter from Bishop Tozer, abandoning the
Mission--Distress of Livingstone--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--Progress
of Dr. Stewart--Livingstonia--Livingstone takes charge of the children
of the Universities Mission--Letter to his daughter--Retrospect--The
work of the Expedition--Livingstone's plans for the future.
CHAPTER XVI.
QUILIMANE TO BOMBAY AND ENGLAND.
A.D. 1864.
Livingstone returns the "Pioneer" to the Navy, and is to sail in the
"Nyassa" to Bombay--Terrific circular storm--Imminent peril of the
"Nyassa"--He reaches Mozambique--Letter to his daughter--Proceeds to
Zanzibar--His engineer leaves him--Scanty crew of "Nyassa"--Livingstone
captain and engineer--Peril of the voyage of 2500 miles--Risk of the
monsoons--The "Nyassa" becalmed--Illness of the men--Remarks on African
travel--Flying-fish--Dolphins--Curiosities of his Journal--Idea of a
colony--Furious squall--Two sea-serpents seen--More squalls--The
"Nyassa" enters Bombay harbor--Is unnoticed--First visit from officer
with Custom-house schedules--How filled up--Attention of Sir Bartle
Frere and others--Livingstone goes with the Governor to Dapuri--His
feelings on landing in India--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--He visits
mission-schools, etc., at Poonah--Slaving in Persian Gulf--Returns to
Bombay--Leaves two boys with Dr. Wilson--Borrows passage-money and sails
for England--At Aden--At Alexandria--Reaches Charing
Cross--Encouragement derived from his Bombay visit--Two projects
contemplated on his way home.
CHAPTER XVII.
SECOND VISIT HOME.
A.D. 1864-1865.
Dr. Livingstone and Sir R. Murchison--At Lady Palmerston's reception--at
other places in London--Sad news of his son Robert--His early death--Dr.
Livingstone goes to Scotland--Pays visits--Consultation with Professor
Syme as to operation--Visit to Duke Argyll--to Ulva--He meets Dr.
Duff--At launch of a Turkish frigate--At Hamilton--Goes to Bath to
British Association--Delivers an address--Dr. Colenso--At funeral of
Captain Speke--Bath speech offends the Portuguese--Charges of
Lacerda--He visits Mr. and Mrs. Webb at Newstead--Their great
hospitality--Livingstone room--He spends eight months there writing his
book--He regains elasticity and playfulness--His book--Charles
Livingstone's share--He uses his influence for Dr. Kirk--Delivers a
lecture at Mansfield--Proposal made to him by Sir R. Murchison to return
to Africa--Letter from Sir Roderick--His reply--He will not cease to be
a missionary--Letter to Mr. James Young--Overtures from Foreign
Office--Livingstone displeased--At dinner of Royal Academy--His speech
not reported--President Lincoln's assassination--Examination by
Committee of House of Commons--His opinion on the capacity of the
negro--He goes down to Scotland--_Tom Brown's School Days_--His mother
very ill--She rallies--He goes to Oxford--Hears of his mother's
death--Returns--He attends examination of Oswell's school--His
speech--Goes to London, preparing to leave--Parts from Mr. and Mrs.
Webb--Stays with Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton--Last days in England.
CHAPTER XVIII.
FROM ENGLAND TO BOMBAY AND ZANZIBAR.
A.D. 1865-1866.
Object of new journey--Double scheme--He goes to Paris with Agnes--Baron
Hausmann--Anecdote at Marseilles--He reaches Bombay--Letter to
Agnes--Reminiscences of Dr. Livingstone at Bombay by Rev. D.C. Boyd--by
Alex. Brown, Esq.--Livingstone's dress--He visits the caves of
Kenhari--Rumors of murder of Baron van der Decken--He delivers a lecture
at Bombay--Great success--He sells the "Lady Nyassa"--Letter to Mr.
James Young--Letter to Anna Mary--Hears that Dr. Kirk has got an
appointment--Sets out for Zanzibar in "Thule"--Letter to Mr. James
Young--His experience at sea--Letter to Agnes--He reaches
Zanzibar--Calls on Sultan--Presents the "Thule" to him from Bombay
Government--Monotony of Zanzibar life--Leaves in "Penguin" for the
continent.
CHAPTER XIX.
FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI.
A.D. 1866-1869.
Dr. Livingstone goes to mouth of Rovuma--His prayer--His company--His
herd of animals--Loss of his buffaloes--Good spirits when setting
put--Difficulties at Rovuma--Bad conduct of Johanna men--Dismissal of
his Sepoys--Fresh horrors of slave-trade--Uninhabited tract--He reaches
Lake Nyassa--Letter to his son Thomas--Disappointed hopes--His double
aim, to teach natives and rouse horror of slave-trade--Tenor of
religious addresses--Wikatami remains behind--Livingstone finds no
altogether satisfactory station for commerce and missions--Question of
the watershed--Was it worth the trouble?--Overruled for good to
Africa--Opinion of Sir Bartle Frere--At Marenga's--The Johanna men leave
in a body--Circulate rumor of his murder--Sir Roderick disbelieves
it--Mr. E.D. Young sent out with Search Expedition--Finds proof against
rumor--Livingstone half-starved--Loss of his goats--Review of
1866--Reflections on Divine Providence--Letter to Thomas--His dog
drowned--Loss of his medicine-chest--He feels sentence of death passed
on him--First sight of Lake Tanganyika--Detained at
Chitimba's--Discovery of Lake Moero--Occupations during detention of
1867--Great privations and difficulties--Illness--Rebellion among his
men--Discovery of Lake Bangweolo--Its oozy
banks--Detention--Sufferings--He makes for Ujiji--Very severe illness in
beginning of 1869--Reaches Ujiji--Finds his goods have been wasted and
stolen--Most bitter disappointment--His medicines, etc., at
Unyanyembe--Letter to Sultan of Zanzibar--Letters to Dr. Moffat and
his daughter.
CHAPTER XX.
MANYUEMA.
A.D. 1869-1871.
He sets out to explore Manyuema and the river Lualaba--Loss of forty-two
letters--His feebleness through illness--He arrives at Bambarré--Becomes
acquainted with the soko or gorilla--Reaches the Luama
River--Magnificence of the country--Repulsiveness of the people--Cannot
get a canoe to explore the Lualaba--Has to return to Bambarré--Letter to
Thomas, and retrospect of his life--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr.
Mann--Miss Tinné--He is worse in health than ever, yet resolves to add
to his programme and go round Lake Bangweolo--Letter to Agnes--Review of
the past--He sets out anew in a more northerly direction--Overpowered by
constant wet--Reaches Nyangwe, the farthest point northward in his last
Expedition--Long detention--Letter to his brother John--Sense of
difficulties and troubles--Nobility of his spirit--He sets off with only
three attendants for the Lualaba--Suspicions of the natives--Influence
of Arab traders--Frightful difficulties of the way--Lamed by
footsores--Has to return to Bambarré--Long and wearisome
detention--Occupations--Meditations and reveries--Death no
terror--Unparalleled position and trials--He reads his Bible from
beginning to end four times--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--To Agnes--His
delight at her sentiments about his coming home--Account of the
soko--Grief to heat of death of Lady Murchison--Wretched character of
men sent from Zanzibar--At last sets out with
Mohamad--Difficulties--Slave-trade most horrible--Cannot get canoes for
Lualaba--Long waiting--New plan--Frustrated by horrible massacre on
banks of Lualaba--Frightful scene--He must return to Ujiji--New
illness--Perils of journey to Ujiji--Life three times endangered in one
day--Reaches Ujiji--Shereef has sold off his goods--He is almost in
despair--Meets Henry M. Stanley and is relieved--His contributions to
Natural Science during last journeys--Professor Owen in the
_Quarterly Review_.
CHAPTER XXI.
LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY.
A.D. 1871-1872.
Mr. Gordon Bennett sends Stanley in search of Livingstone--Stanley at
Zanzibar--Starts for Ujiji--Reaches Unyanyembe--Dangerous illness--War
between Arabs and natives--Narrow escape of Stanley--Approach to
Ujiji--Meeting with Livingstone--Livingstone's story--Stanley's
news--Livingstone's goods and men at Bagamoio--Stanley's account of
Livingstone--Refutation of foolish and calumnious charges--They go to
the north of the lake--Livingstone resolves not to go home, but to get
fresh men and return to the sources--Letter to Agnes--to Sir Thomas
Maclear--The travelers go to Unyanyembe--More plundering of
stores--Stanley leaves for Zanzibar--Stanley's bitterness of heart at
parting--Livingstone's intense gratitude to Stanley--He intrusts his
Journal to him, and commissions him to send servants and stores from
Zanzibar--Stanley's journey to the coast--Finds Search Expedition at
Bagamoio--Proceeds to England--Stanley's reception--Unpleasant
feelings--Éclaircissement--England grateful to Stanley.
CHAPTER XXII.
FROM UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO.
A.D. 1872-1873.
Livingstone's long wait at Unyanyembe--His plan of operations--His
fifty-ninth birthday--Renewal of self-dedication--Letters to Agnes--to
_New York Herald_--Hardness of the African battle--Waverings of
judgment, whether Lualaba was the Nile or the Congo--Extracts from
Journal--Gleams of humor--Natural history--His distress on hearing of
the death of Sir Roderick Murchison--Thoughts on mission-work--Arrival
of his escort--His happiness in his new men--He starts from
Unyanyembe--Illness--Great amount of rain--Near Bangweolo--Incessant
moisture--Flowers of the forest--Taking of observations regularly
prosecuted--Dreadful state of the country from rain--Hunger--Furious
attack of ants--Greatness of Livingstone's sufferings--Letters to Sir
Thomas Maclear, Mr. Young, his brother, and Agnes--His sixtieth
birthday--Great weakness in April--Sunday services and observations
continued--Increasing illness--The end approaching--Last written
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--Carried toward
shore--Dangers and sufferings during the march--The party meet
Lieutenant Cameron at Unyanyembe--Determine to go on--_Ruse_ at
Kasekéra--Death of Dr. Dillon--The party reach Bagamoio, and the remains
are placed on board a cruiser--The Search Expeditions from England--to
East Coast under Cameron--to West Coast under Grandy--Explanation of
Expeditions by Sir Henry Rawlinson--Livingstone's remains brought to
England--Examined by Sir W. Fergusson and others--Buried in Westminster
Abbey--Inscription on slab--Livingstone's wish for a forest grave--Lines
from _Punch_--Tributes to his memory--Sir Bartle Frere--The
_Lancet_--Lord Polwarth--Florence Nightingale.
CHAPTER XXIII.
POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.
History of his life not completed at his death--Thrilling effect of the
tragedy of Ilala--Livingstone's influence on the slave-trade--His
letters from Manyuema--Sir Bartle Frere's mission to
Zanzibar--Successful efforts of Dr. Kirk with Sultan of Zanzibar--The
land route--The sea route--Slave-trade declared illegal--Egypt--The
Soudan--Colonel Gordon--Conventions with Turkey--King Mtesa of
Uganda--Nyassa district--Introduction of lawful commerce--Various
commercial enterprises in progress--Influence of Livingstone on
exploration--Enterprise of newspapers--Exploring undertakings of various
nations--Livingstone's personal service to science--His hard work in
science the cause of respect--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, Inland, Baptist, and American
missions--Medical missions--The Fisk Livingstone hall--Livingstone's
great legacy to Africa, a spotless Christian name and character--Honors
of the future.
APPENDIX.
I. Extracts from paper on "Missionary Sacrifices".
II. Treatment of African Fever.
III. Letter to Dr. Tidman, as to future operations.
IV. Lord Clarendon's Letter to Sekelétu.
V. Public Honors awarded to Dr. Livingstone.
DAYID LIVINGSTONE.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY YEARS.
A.D. 1813-1836.
Ulva--The Livingstones--Traditions of Ulva life--The
"baughting-time"--"Kirsty's Rock"--Removal of Livingstone's grandfather
to Blantyre--Highland blood--Neil Livingstone--His marriage to Agnes
Hunter--Her grandfather and father--Monument to Neil and Agnes
Livingstone in Hamilton Cemetery--David Livingstone, born 19th March,
1813--Boyhood--At home--In school--David goes into Blantyre Mill--First
Earnings--Night-school--His habits of reading--Natural-history
expeditions--Great spiritual change in his twentieth year--Dick's
_Philosophy of a Future State_--He resolves to be a
missionary--Influence of occupation at Blantyre--Sympathy with the
people--Thomas Burk and David Hogg--Practical character of his religion.
The family of David Livingstone sprang, as he has himself recorded, from
the island of Ulva, on the west coast of Mull, in Argyllshire. Ulva,
"the island of wolves," 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 Macquaires, 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 gray-headed," but according to
another derivation, "son of the physician." It has been surmised 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
favor, 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 years in the abbreviated form, but about 1857, at his
father's request, he restored the original spelling[1]. The significance
of the original form of the name was not without 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,
acknowledging 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 labors, the
white _stone_ is given you in the happy land."
[Footnote 1: See Journal of Geographical Society, 1857, p. clxviii.]
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 introduce 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 also recorded a
tradition that the people of the island were converted 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 afterward--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[2] 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 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
neighbors, 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. Livingstone
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" presented 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.
[Footnote 2: Kilninian and Kilmore. See _New Statistical Account of
Scotland_, Argyllshire, p. 345]
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 Lanarkshire, 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 his
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 of education, that he was complimented by
the Blantyre school-master 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 of Livingstone seem to have left
the island at the same time, 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
earlier 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 missionaries, he sought
to conserve, while purifying it by Christian influence. It showed itself
in the dash and daring which were so remarkbly combined in him with
Saxon forethought 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 Murchison was quite that of a Highlander,
and hardly less so was his feeling toward 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 somewhat 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 Blantyre 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 upward, 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 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 missionary society, and a promoter of meetings for
prayer and fellowship, before such things had ceased to be regarded as
badges of fanaticism. While traveling through the neighboring 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 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 traveler 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 Airdrie, where he owned a cottage and a
croft. Mrs. Hunter died, when her daughter Agnes, afterward 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 neighbors. 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 character procured for him great respect,
died at Blantyre in 1834, at the age of eighty-seven. He was a great
favorite with his grandchildren, to whom he was always kind, and whom he
allowed to rummage freely among his books, of which he had a
considerable collection, chiefly theological.
Neil Livingstone and Agnes Hunter were married in 1810, and took up
house at first in Glasgow. The furnishing 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 resemblance. She was most careful of household
duties, and attentive to her children. Her love had no crust to
penetrate, 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 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 a very 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 sergeant had compassion on him, and said,
'Tell me, gudeman, if you are really out of your mind. I'll 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 sergeant.
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 shillings, saying, 'Tak' that, gudeman,
and gang awa' hame to your wife and weans, 'Ay,' said mother, 'mony a
prayer went up for that sergeant, 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 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 traveling
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[3]."
[Footnote 3: _Last Journals_ vol. i. p. 55]
The home 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 honored the day of rest; a thrift that made the most of
everything, though it never got far beyond the bare necessaries 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 colonization 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, deliberately 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 EXPEESS 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 favorite 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 and tell them all that had occurred during the week,
thus sharing his life with them. His sisters still 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 afterward applied. Looking back to
this period, Livingstone might have said, in the words of the old
Scotch 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
promoted 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
Ruddiman's Rudiments of Latin, and pursued the study of that language
with unabated ardor for many years afterward at an evening class which
had been opened between the hours of eight and ten. "The dictionary part
of my labors 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
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[4]."
[Footnote 4: _Missionary Travels_, p. 8.]
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 labor 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 interested in the enterprise of the nineteenth
century, or, as he called it, "the progress of the world," and
endeavored 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'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 Livingstone 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, geological, and zoological specimens.
Culpepper's _Herbal_ was a favorite book, and it set him to look in
every direction for as many of the plants described in it as the
countryside could supply. A story has been circulated that on these
occasions he did not always confine his researches in zoology 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 Livingstone'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 instill the
doctrines of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty 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 personal application of the provisions of that
atonement to my own case[5]." 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 realize 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.
[Footnote 5: _Missionary Travels_, p.4]
In these circumstances he fell in with Dick's _Philosophy of 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 believing 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 affectionate 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 life. 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 bedside in the hut in Ilala, and his spirit returned to his
God and Saviour.
At first he had no thought of being himself a missionary. 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[6]." The resolution to give himself came 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 toward that object without any fluctuation."
[Footnote 6: Statement to Directors of London Missionary Society.]
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[7]." The fellow-feeling he acquired for
the children of labor 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," Livingstone would welcome the "good time
coming," humming the words of Burns:
[Footnote 7: _Missionary Travels_, p. 6.]
"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 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. Essentially alike, they seem to have
been outwardly very different. 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 marvelous,
and used to be told in after-years to crowds of wondering listeners. But
most marvelous 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 high for most even of the
well-disposed people of Blantyre, 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 honor 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; the
aversion 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 cherishing more and more firmly the
one great test of the Saviour--"By their fruits ye shall know them."
CHAPTER II.
MISSIONARY PREPARATION.
A.D. 1836--1840.
His desire to be a missionary to China--Medical missions--He studies at
Glasgow--Classmates and teachers--He applies to London Missionary
Society--His ideas of mission work--He is accepted provisionally--He
goes to London--to Ongar--Reminiscences by Rev. Joseph Moore--by Mrs.
Gilbert--by Rev. Isaac Taylor--Nearly rejected by the Directors--Returns
to Ongar--to London--Letter to his sister--Reminiscences by Dr. Risdon
Bennett--Promise to Professor Owen--Impression of his character on his
friends and fellow-students--Rev. R. Moffat in England--Livingstone
interested--Could not be sent to China--Is appointed to
Africa--Providential links in his history--Illness--Last visits to his
home--Receives Medical diploma--Parts from his family.
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
labored. 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. Afterward,
when his brother Charles, then in America, wrote to him that he, too,
felt called to the 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[8]. 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 aquire 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
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. Scotch
students have often done wonders in this way, notably the late Dr. John
Henderson, a medical missionary to China, who actually lived on
half-a-crown a week, while attending medical classes in Edinburgh.
Livingstone followed the same self-denying course. If we had a note of
his house-keeping in his Glasgow lodging, we should wonder less at his
ability to live on the fare to which he was often reduced in Africa.
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 wonderfully his
strong scientific turn.
[Footnote 8: Livingstone's minister at this time was the Rev. John Moir,
of the Congregational church, Hamilton, who afterward joined the Free
Church of Scotland, and is now Presbyterian minister in Wellington, New
Zealand. Mr. Moir has furnished us with some recollections of
Livingstone, which reached us after the completion of this narrative. He
particularly notes that when Livingstone expressed his desire to be a
missionary, it was a missionary out and out, a missionary to the
heathen, not the minister of a congregation. Mr. Moir kindly lent him
some books when he went to London, all of which were conscientiously
returned before he left the country. A Greek Lexicon, with only cloth
boards when lent, was returned in substantial calf. He was ever careful,
conscientious, and honorable in all his dealings, as his father had been
before him.]
It was in the winter of 1836-37 that he spent his first 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
would put "a stout heart to a stey brae," and "either mak' a spune or
spoil a horn." At Rotten Row he 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[9]. The classes he attended during these two sessions were the
Greek class in Anderson's College, the theological classes of Rev. Dr.
Wardlaw, who trained students for the Independent Churches, and the
medical classes in Anderson's. In the Greek class he seems to have been
entered as a private student exciting little notice[10]. 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.
[Footnote 9: 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.]
[Footnote 10: A very sensational and foolish reminiscence was once
published of a raw country youth coming into the class with his clothes
stained with grease and whitened by cotton-wool. This was Livingstone.
The fact is, nothing could possibly have been more unlike him. At this
time Livingstone was not working at the mill; and, in regard to dress,
however plainly he might be clad, he was never careless, far less
offensive.]
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,
Professor 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 increased 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 Right Hon. Lyon
Playfair, who has had so distinguished a scientific career, was another
of its habitués. 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, Professor James Thomson, is well known for his
useful inventions and ingenious papers on many branches of 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 themselves
more subservient to the use of man than he whom Livingstone first knew
as Graham's assistant, and afterward 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 successful
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.R.S.
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, inasmuch 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 inaccuracy
which was so marked a feature of his character through life.
It happened that Livingstone did not part company with 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, afterward 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 this
preference 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 spirituality of the Church; and he had a particular
abhorrence of 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.
In his application to the London Missionary Society, Livingstone stated
his ideas of missionary work in comprehensive terms: "The missionary's
object is to endeavor by every means in his power to make known the
gospel by preaching, exhortation, conversation, instruction of the
young; improving, so far as in his power, the temporal condition of
those among whom he labors, by introducing the arts and sciences of
civilization, and doing everything to commend Christianity to their
hearts and consciences. He will be exposed to great trials of his faith
and patience from the indifference, distrust, and even direct opposition
and scorn of those for whose good he is laboring; he may be tempted to
despondency from the little apparent fruit of his exertions, and exposed
to all the contaminating influence of heathenism." He was not about to
undertake this work without counting the cost. "The hardships and
dangers of missionary life, so far as I have had the means of
ascertaining their nature and extent, have been the subject of serious
reflection, and in dependence on the promised assistance of the Holy
Spirit, I have no hesitation in saying that I would willingly submit to
them, considering my constitution capable of enduring any ordinary share
of hardship or fatigue." On one point he was able to give the Directors
very explicit information: he was not married, nor under any engagement
of marriage, nor had he ever made proposals of marriage, nor indeed been
in love! He would prefer to go out unmarried, that he might, like the
great apostle, be without family cares, and give himself entirely to
the work.
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
recollections of Livingstone at this time:--
"I met with Livingstone first in September, 1838, at 57 Aldersgate
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. Leifchild, 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
worshiped 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 civilized world's--lament, in
that sacred shrine? The wildest fancy could not have pictured that such
an honor awaited David 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 indescribable 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 favorable 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 neighborhood, 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[11]. 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. Livingston immediately went to her, helped to carry
her into a house close by, and having examined 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 noonday had
passed on Sunday.
[Footnote 11: 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, smearing his clothes, and not improving his appearance for
smart business purposes. The day was spent in going about in London from
shop to shop, greatly increasing Livingstone's fatigue.]
"Total abstinence at that time began to be spoken of, and Livingstone
and I, and a Mr. Taylor, who went to India, took a pledge together to
abstain[12]. Of that trio, two, I am sorry to say _(heu me miserum!),_
enfeebled health, after many years, compelled to take a little wine for
our stomachs' sake. Livingstone was one of the two.
[Footnote 12: Livingstone had always practiced total abstinence,
according to the invariable custom of his father's house. The third of
the trio was the Rev. Joseph V.S. Taylor, now of the Irish Presbyterian
Mission, Gujerat, Bombay.]
"One part of our duties was to prepare sermons, which were submitted to
Mr. Cecil, and, when corrected, were committed to memory, and then
repeated to our village congregations. Livingstone prepared one, and one
Sunday the minister of Stamford Rivers; 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
selfishness 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[13]."
[Footnote 13: In connection with this prayer, it is interesting to note
the impression made by Livingstone nearly twenty years afterward 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."]
In the Autobiography of Mrs. Gilbert, an eminent member of the family of
the Taylors of Ongar, there occur some reminiscenses of Livingstone,
corresponding to those here given by Mr. Moore[14].
[Footnote 14: Page 886, third edition.]
The Rev. Isaac Taylor, LL.D., now rector of Settringham, York, son of
the celebrated author of _The Natural History of Enthusiasm_, and
himself author of _Words 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 resolution. 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[15]."
[Footnote 15: On one occasion, in conversation with his former pastor,
the Rev. John Moir, Livingstone spoke of Mr. Isaac Taylor, who had shown
him much kindness, and often invited him to dine in his house. He said
that though Mr. Taylor was connected with the Independents, he was
attached to the principles of the Church of England. Mr. Taylor used to
lay very great stress on acquaintance with the writings of the Fathers
as necessary for meeting the claims of the Tractarians, and did not
think that that study was sufficiently encouraged by the Nonconformists.
Any one who has been in Mr. Taylor's study at Stanford Rivers, and who
remembers the top-heavy row of patristic folios that crowned his
collection of books, and the glance of pride he cast on them as he asked
his visitor whether many men in his Church were well read in the
Fathers, will be at no loss to verify this reminiscence. Certainly
Livingstone had no such qualification, and undoubtedly he never
missed it.]
We resume Mr. Moore's reminiscences:
"When three months had elapsed, Mr. Cecil sent in his report to the
Board. Judging from Livingstone's hesitating manner in conducting family
worship, and while praying on the week-days in the chapel, and also from
his failure so complete in preaching, an unfavorable 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 scandalized at such an exhibition of effeminacy, and
positively refused to gratify my wish.... In the spring of 1840 I met
Livingstone 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[16]. 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.
[Footnote 16: _Life of Bishop Wilberforce_, vol. i, p. 160.]
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 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
contains 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 characterize 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
surrender 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 endeavors, and you need not
fear that your labor will be unfruitful. If you have the
willing mind, that is accepted; nothing 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' comes 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 were 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 thought of China. Mr. Moir, his former pastor, writes 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 ardor
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 J. Risdon
Bennett, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., and President of the Royal College of
Physicians, London. The friendship continued during the whole of Dr.
Livingstone's life. From some recollections with which Dr. Bennett 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
toward 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
medical 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 dispensary. I think that I also obtained for him
admission to the opthalmic 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 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
civilization. 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 surpassed in the annals of heroism."
Another distinguished man of science with whom Livingstone 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
neighborhood as Hunter[17], 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
traveler 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.
[Footnote 17: Not in the same _parish_, as stated afterward by Professor
Owen. Hunter was born in East Kilbride, and Livingstone in Blantyre. The
error is repeated in notices of Livingstone in some other quarters.]
On all his fellow-students and acquaintances the simplicity, 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. G.D. Watt, a brother Scotchman, who went as a missionary to India,
has a vivid remembrance of Livingstone's mode of discussion; he showed
great simplicity of view, along with a certain roughness or bluntness of
manner; great kindliness, and yet great persistence in holding to his
own ideas. But none of his friends seem to have had any foresight of
the eminence he was destined to attain. The Directors of the Society
did not even rank him among their ablest men. It is interesting to
contrast the opinion entertained of him then with that expressed by Sir
Bartle Frere, after much personal intercourse, many years afterward. "Of
his intellectual force and energy," wrote Sir Bartle, "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
realize[18]."
[Footnote 18: _Good Words_, 1874, p. 285.]
But his early friends were not so much at fault. Livingstone was
somewhat slow of maturing. If we may say so, his intellect hung fire up
to this very time, and it was only during his last year in England that
he came to his intellectual manhood, and showed his real power. His very
handwriting shows the change; from being cramped and feeble it suddenly
becomes clear, firm, and upright, very neat, but quite the hand of a
vigorous, independent man.
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 came into contact with his countryman, Mr. (now
Dr.) Moffat, who was then in England, creating much interest in his
South African mission. The idea of his going to Africa became a settled
thing, and was soon carried into effect.
"I had occasion" (Dr. Moffat has informed us) "to call for
some one at Mrs. Sewell's, a boarding-house for young
missionaries in Aldersgate street, where Livingstone lived. I
observed soon that this young man was interested in my story,
that he would sometimes come quietly and ask me a question or
two, and that he was always desirous to know where I was to
speak in public, and attended on these occasions. By and by
he asked me whether I thought he would do for Africa. I said
I believed he would, if he would not go to an old station,
but would advance to unoccupied ground, specifying the vast
plain to the north, where I had sometimes seen, in the
morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages, where no
missionary had ever been. At last Livingstone said: 'What is
the use of my waiting for the end of this abominable opium
war? I will go at once to Africa.' The Directors concurred,
and Africa became his sphere."
It is no wonder that all his life Livingstone had a very strong faith in
Providence, for at every turn of his career up to this point, some
unlooked-for circumstance had come in to give a new direction to his
history. First, his reading Dick's _Philosophy of a Future State_, which
led him to Christ, but did not lead him away from science; then his
falling in with Gutzlaff's _Appeal_, which induced him to become a
medical missionary; the Opium War, which closed China against him; the
friendly word of the Director who procured for him another trial; Mr.
Moffat's visit, which deepened his interest in Africa; and finally, the
issue of a dangerous illness that attacked him in London--all indicated
the unseen hand that was preparing him for his great work.
The meeting of Livingstone with Moffat is far too important an event to
be passed over without remark. Both directly and indirectly Mr. Moffat's
influence on his young brother, afterward to become his son-in-law, was
remarkable. In after-life they had a thorough appreciation of each
other. No family on the face of the globe could have been so helpful to
Livingstone in connection with the great work to which he gave himself.
If the old Roman fashion of surnames still prevailed, there is no
household of which all the members would have been better entitled to
put AFRICANUS after their name. The interests of the great continent
were dear to them all. In 1872, when one of the Search Expeditions for
Livingstone was fitted out, a grandson of Dr. Moffat, another Robert
Moffat, was among those who set out in the hope of relieving him; cut
off at the very beginning, in the flower of his youth, he left his bones
to moulder in African soil.
The illness to which we have alluded was an attack of congestion of the
liver, with an affection of the lungs. It seemed likely to prove fatal,
and the only chance of recovery appeared to be a visit to his home, and
return to his native air. In accompanying him to the steamer, Mr. Moore
found him so weak that he could scarcely walk on board. He parted from
him in tears, fearing that he had but a few days to live. But the voyage
and the visit had a wonderful effect, and very soon Livingstone was in
his usual health. The parting with his father and mother, as they
afterward told Mr. Moore, was very affecting. It happened, however, that
they met once more. It was felt that the possession of a medical diploma
would be of service, and Livingstone returned to Scotland in November,
1840, and passed at Glasgow as Licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians
and Surgeons. It was on this occasion he found it so inconvenient to
have opinions of his own and the knack of sticking to them. It seemed as
if he was going to be rejected for obstinately maintaining his views in
regard to the stethoscope; but he pulled through. A single night was all
that he could spend with his family, and they had so much to speak of
that David proposed they should sit up all night. This, however, his
mother would not hear of. "I remember my father and him," writes his
sister, "talking over the prospects of Christian missions. They agreed
that the time would come when rich men and great men would think it an
honor to support whole stations of missionaries, instead of spending
their money on hounds and horses. On the morning of 17th November we got
up at five o'clock. My mother made coffee. David read the 121st and
135th Psalms, and prayed. My father and he walked to Glasgow to catch
the Liverpool steamer." On the Broomielaw, father and son looked for the
last time on earth on each other's faces. The old man walked back slowly
to Blantyre, with a lonely heart no doubt, yet praising God. David's
face was now set in earnest toward the Dark Continent.
CHAPTER III.
FIRST TWO YEARS IN AFRICA.
A.D. 1841-1843.
His ordination--Voyage out--At Rio de Janeiro--At the Cape--He proceeds
to Kuruman--Letters--Journey of 700 miles to Bechuana country--Selection
of site for new station--Second excursion to Bechuana country--Letter to
his sister--Influence with chiefs--Bubi--Construction of a
water-dam--Sekomi--Woman seized by a lion--The Bakaa--Sebehwe--Letter to
Dr. Risdon Bennett--Detention at Kuruman--He visits Sebehwe's
village--Bakhatlas--Sechéle, chief of Bakwains--Livingstone translates
hymns--Travels 400 miles on oxback--Returns to Kuruman--Is authorized to
form new station--Receives contributions for native missionary--Letters
to Directors on their Mission policy--He goes to new
station--Fellow-travelers--Purchase of site--Letter to Dr.
Bennett--Desiccation of South Africa--Death of a servant, Sehamy--Letter
to his parents.
On the 20th November, 1840, Livingstone was ordained a missionary in
Albion Street Chapel, along with the Rev. William Ross, the service
being conducted by the Rev. J.J. Freeman and the Rev. R. Cecil. On the
8th of December he embarked on board the ship "George," under Captain
Donaldson, and proceeded to the Cape, and thence to Algoa Bay. On the
way the ship had to put in at Rio de Janeiro, and he had a glance at
Brazil, with which he was greatly charmed. It was the only glimpse he
ever got of any part of the great continent of America. Writing to the
Rev. G.D. Watt, with whom he had become intimate in London, and who was
preparing to go as a missionary to India, he says:
"It is certainly the finest place I ever saw; everything
delighted me except man.... We lived in the home of an
American Episcopal Methodist minister--the only Protestant
missionary in Brazil.... Tracts and Bibles are circulated,
and some effects might be expected, were a most injurious
influence not exerted by European visitors. These alike
disgrace themselves and the religion they profess by
drunkenness. All other vices are common in Rio. When will the
rays of Divine light dispel the darkness in this beautiful
empire? The climate is delightful. I wonder if disabled
Indian missionaries could not make themselves useful there."
During the voyage his chief friend was the captain of the ship. "He was
very obliging to me," says Livingstone, "and gave me all the information
respecting the use of the quadrant in his power, frequently sitting up
till twelve o'clock at night for the purpose of taking lunar
observations with me." Thus another qualification was acquired for his
very peculiar life-work. Sundays were not times of refreshing, at least
not beyond his closet. "The captain rigged out the church on Sundays,
and we had service; but I being a poor preacher, and the chaplain
addressing them all as Christians already, no moral influence was
exerted, and even had there been on Sabbath, it would have been
neutralized by the week-day conduct. In fact, no good was done." Neither
at Rio, nor on board ship, nor anywhere, could good be done without the
element of personal character. This was Livingstone's strong conviction
to the end of his life.
In his first letter to the Directors of the London Missionary Society he
tells them that he had spent most of his time at sea in the study of
theology, and that he was deeply grieved to say that he knew of no
spiritual good having been done in the case of any one on board the
ship. His characteristic honesty thus showed itself in his very
first dispatch.
Arriving at the Cape, where the ship was detained a month, he spent some
time with Dr. Philip, then acting as agent for the Society, with
informal powers as superintendent. Dr. Philip was desirous of returning
home for a time, and very anxious to find some one to take his place as
minister of the congregation of Cape Town, in his absence. This office
was offered to Livingstone, who rejected it with no little
emphasis--not for a moment would he think of it, nor would he preach the
gospel within any other man's line. He had not been long at the Cape
when he found to his surprise and sorrow that the missionaries were not
all at one, either as to the general policy of the mission, or in the
matter of social intercourse and confidence. The shock was a severe one;
it was not lessened by what he came to know of the spirit and life of a
few--happily only a few--of his brethren afterward; and undoubtedly it
had an influence on his future life. It showed him that there were
missionaries whose profession was not supported by a life of consistent
well-doing, although it did not shake his confidence in the character
and the work of missionaries on the whole. He saw that in the mission
there was what might be called a colonial side and a native side; some
sympathizing with the colonists and some with the natives. He had no
difficulty in making up his mind between them; he drew instinctively to
the party that were for protecting the natives against the unrighteous
encroachments of the settlers.
On leaving the ship at Algoa Bay, he proceeded by land to Kuruman or
Lattakoo, in the Bechuana country, the most northerly station of the
Society in South Africa, and the usual residence of Mr. Moffat, who was
still absent in England. In this his first African journey the germ of
the future traveler was apparent. "Crossing the Orange River," he says,
"I got my vehicle aground, and my oxen got out of order, some with their
heads where their tails should be, and others with their heads twisted
round in the yoke so far that they appeared bent on committing suicide,
or overturning the wagon.... I like travelling very much indeed. There
is so much freedom connected with our African manners. We pitch our
tent, make our fire, etc., wherever we choose, walk, ride, or shoot at
abundance of all sorts of game as our inclination leads us; but there
is a great drawback: we can't study or read when we please. I feel this
very much. I have made but very little progress in the language (can
speak a little Dutch), but I long for the time when I shall give my
undivided attention to it, and then be furnished with the means of
making known the truth of the gospel." While at the Cape, Livingstone
had heard something of a fresh-water lake ('Ngami) which all the
missionaries were eager to see. If only they would give him a month or
two to learn the colloquial language, he said they might spare
themselves the pains of being "the first in at the death." It is
interesting to remark further that, in this first journey, science had
begun to receive its share of attention. He is already bent on making a
collection for the use of Professor Owen[19], and is enthusiastic in
describing some agatized trees and other curiosities which he met with.
[Footnote 19: This collection never reached its destination.]
Writing to his parents from Port Elizabeth, 19th May, 1841, he gives his
first impressions of Africa. He had been at a station called Hankey:
"The scenery was very fine. The white sand in some places
near the beach drifted up in large wreaths exactly like snow.
One might imagine himself in Scotland were there not a hot
sun overhead. The woods present an aspect of strangeness, for
everywhere the eye meets the foreign-looking tree from which
the bitter aloes is extracted, popping up its head among the
mimosa bushes and stunted acacias. Beautiful humming-birds
fly about in great numbers, sucking the nectar from the
flowers, which are in great abundance and very beautiful. I
was much pleased with my visit to Hankey.... The state of the
people presents so many features of interest, that one may
talk about it and convey some idea of what the Gospel has
done. The full extent of the benefit received can, however,
be understood only by those who witness it in contrast with
other places that have not been so highly favored. My
expectations have been far exceeded. Everything I witnessed
surpassed my hopes, and if this one station is a fair sample
of the whole, the statements of the missionaries with regard
to their success are far within the mark. The Hottentots of
Hankey appear to be in a state similar to that of our
forefathers in the days immediately preceding the times of
the Covenanters. They have a prayer-meeting every morning at
four o'clock, _and well attended_. They began it during a
visitation of measles among them, and liked it so much that
they still continue."
He goes on to say that as the natives had no clocks or watches, mistakes
sometimes occurred about ringing the bell for this meeting, and
sometimes the people found themselves assembled at twelve or one o'clock
instead of four. The welcome to the missionaries (their own missionary
was returning from the Cape with Livingstone) was wonderful. Muskets
were fired at their approach, then big guns; and then men, women, and
children rushed at the top of their speed to shake hands and welcome
them. The missionary had lost a little boy, and out of respect each of
the people had something black on his head. Both public worship and
family worship were very interesting, the singing of hymns being very
beautiful. The bearing of these Christianized Hottentots was in complete
contrast to that of a Dutch family whom he visited as a medical man one
Sunday. There was no Sunday; the man's wife and daughters were dancing
before the house, while a black played the fiddle.
His instructions from the Directors were to go to Kuruman, remain there
till Mr. Moffat should return from England, and turn his attention to
the formation of a new station farther north, awaiting more specific
instructions, He arrived at Kuruman on the 31st July, 1841, but no
instructions had come from the Directors; his sphere of work was quite
undetermined, and he began to entertain the idea of going to Abyssinia.
There could be no doubt that a Christian missionary was needed there,
for the country had none; but if he should go, he felt that probably he
would never return. In writing of this to his friend Watt, he used words
almost prophetic: "Whatever way my life may be spent so as but to
promote the glory of our gracious God, I feel anxious to do it.... _My
life, may be spent as profitably as a pioneer as in any other way_."
In his next letter to the London Missionary Society, dated Kuruman, 23d
September, 1841, he gives his impressions of the field, and unfolds an
idea which took hold of him at the very beginning, and never lost its
grip. It was, that there was not population enough about the South to
justify a concentration of missionary labor there, and that the policy
of the Society ought to be one of expansion, moving out far and wide
wherever there was an opening, and making the utmost possible use of
native agency, in order to cultivate so wide a field. In England he had
thought that Kuruman might be made a great missionary institute, whence
the beams of divine truth might diverge in every direction, through
native agents supplied from among the converts; but since he came to the
spot he had been obliged to abandon that notion; not that the Kuruman
mission had not been successful, or that the attendance at public
worship was small, but simply because the population was meagre, and
seemed more likely to become smaller than larger. The field from which
native agents might be drawn was thus too small. Farther north there was
a denser population. It was therefore his purpose, along with a brother
missionary, to make an early journey to the interior, and bury himself
among the natives, to learn their language, and slip into their modes of
thinking and feeling. He purposed to take with him two of the best
qualified native Christians of Kuruman, to plant them as teachers in
some promising locality; and in case any difficulty should arise about
their maintenance, he offered, with characteristic generosity, to defray
the cost of one of them from his own resources.
Accordingly, in company with a brother missionary from Kuruman, a
journey of seven hundred miles was performed before the end of the year,
leading chiefly to two results: in the first place, a strong
confirmation of his views on the subject of native agency; and in the
second place, the selection of a station, two hundred and fifty miles
north of Kuruman, as the most suitable for missionary operations. Seven
hundred miles traveled over _more Africano_ seemed to indicate a vast
territory; but on looking at it on the map, it was a mere speck on the
continent of heathenism. How was that continent ever to be evangelized?
He could think of no method except an extensive method of native agency.
And the natives, when qualified, were admirably qualified. Their warm,
affectionate manner of dealing with their fellow-men, their ability to
present the truth to their minds freed from the strangeness of which
foreigners could not divest it, and the eminent success of those
employed by the brethren of Griqua Town, were greatly in their favor.
Two natives had likewise been employed recently by the Kuruman Mission,
and these had been highly efficient and successful. If the Directors
would allow him to employ more of these, conversions would increase in a
compound ratio, and regions not yet explored by Europeans would soon be
supplied with the bread of life.
In regard to the spot selected for a mission, there were many
considerations in its favor. In the immediate neighborhood of Kuruman
the chiefs hated the gospel, because it deprived them of their
supernumerary wives. In the region farther north, this feeling had not
yet established itself; on the contrary, there was an impression
favorable to Europeans, and a desire for their alliance. These Bechuana
tribes had suffered much from the marauding invasions of their
neighbors; and recently, the most terrible marauder of the country,
Mosilikatse, after being driven westward by the Dutch Boers, had taken
up his abode on the banks of a central lake, and resumed his raids,
which were keeping the whole country in alarm. The more peaceful tribes
had heard of the value of the white man, and of the weapons by which a
mere handful of whites had repulsed hordes of marauders. They were
therefore disposed to welcome the stranger, although this state of
feeling could not be relied on as sure to continue, for Griqua hunters
and individuals from tribes hostile to the gospel were moving northward,
and not only circulating rumors unfavorable to missionaries, but by
their wicked lives introducing diseases previously unknown. If these
regions, therefore, were to be taken possession of by the gospel, no
time was to be lost. For himself, Livingstone had no hesitation in going
to reside in the midst of these savages, hundreds of miles away from
civilization, not merely for a visit, but, if necessary, for the whole
of his life.
In writing to his sisters after this journey (8th December, 1841), he
gives a graphic account of the country, and some interesting notices of
the people:
"Janet, I suppose, will feel anxious to know what our dinner
was. We boiled a piece of the flesh of a rhinoceros which was
toughness itself, the night before. The meat was our supper,
and porridge made of Indian corn-meal and gravy of the meat
made a very good dinner next day. When about 150 miles from
home we came to a large village. The chief had sore eyes; I
doctored them, and he fed us pretty well with milk and beans,
and sent a fine buck after me as a present. When we had got
about ten or twelve miles on the way, a little girl about
eleven or twelve years of age came up and sat down under my
wagon, having run away for the purpose of coming with us to
Kuruman. She had lived with a sister whom she had lately lost
by death. Another family took possession of her for the
purpose of selling her as soon as she was old enough for a
wife. But not liking this, she determined to run away from
them and come to some friends near Kuruman. With this
intention she came, and thought of walking all the way behind
my wagon. I was pleased with the determination of the little
creature, and gave her some food. But before we had remained
long there, I heard her sobbing violently, as if her heart
would break. On looking round, I observed the cause. A man
with a gun had been sent after her, and he had just arrived.
I did not know well what to do now, but I was not in
perplexity long, for Pomare, a native convert who accompanied
us, started up and defended her cause. He being the son of a
chief, and possessed of some little authority, managed the
matter nicely. She had been loaded with beads to render her
more attractive, and fetch a higher price. These she stripped
off and gave to the man, and desired him to go away. I
afterward took measures for hiding her, and though fifty men
had come for her, they would not have got her."
The story reads like an allegory or a prophecy. In the person of the
little maid, oppressed and enslaved Africa comes to the good Doctor for
protection; instinctively she knows she may trust him; his heart opens
at once, his ingenuity contrives a way of protection and deliverance,
and he will never give her up. It is a little picture of
Livingstone's life.
In fulfillment of a promise made to the natives in the interior that he
would return to them, Livingstone set out on a second tour into the
interior of the Bechuana country on 10th February, 1842. His objects
were, first, to acquire the native language more perfectly, and second,
by suspending his medical practice, which had become inconveniently
large at Kuruman, to give his undivided attention to the subject of
native agents. He took with him two native members of the Kuruman
church, and two other natives for the management of the wagon.
The first person that specially engaged his interest in this journey was
a chief of the name of Bubi, whose people were Bakwains. With him he
stationed one of the native agents as a teacher, the chief himself
collecting the children and supplying them with food. The honesty of the
people was shown in their leaving untouched all the contents of his
wagon, though crowds of them visited it. Livingstone was already
acquiring a powerful influence, both with chiefs and people, the result
of his considerate and conciliatory treatment of both. He had already
observed the failure of some of his brethren to influence them, and his
sagacity had discerned the cause. His success in inducing Bubi's people
to dig a canal was contrasted in a characteristic passage of a private
letter, with the experience of others.
"The doctor and the rainmaker among these people are one and
the same person. As I did not like to be behind my
professional brethren, I declared I could make rain too, not,
however, by enchantments like them, but by leading out their
river for irrigation. The idea pleased mightily, and to work
we went instanter. Even the chief's own doctor is at it, and
works like a good fellow, laughing heartily at the cunning of
the 'foreigner' who can make rain so. We have only one spade,
and this is without a handle; and yet by means of sticks
sharpened to a point we have performed all the digging of a
pretty long canal. The earth was lifted out in 'gowpens' and
carried to the huge dam we have built in karosses (skin
cloaks), tortoise-shells, or wooden bowls. We intended
nothing of the ornamental in it, but when we came to a huge
stone, we were forced to search for a way round it. The
consequence is, it has assumed a beautifully serpentine
appearance. This is, I believe, the first instance in which
Bechuanas have been got to work without wages. It was with
the utmost difficulty the earlier missionaries got them to do
anything. The missionaries solicited their permission to do
what they did, and this was the very way to make them show
off their airs, for they are so disobliging; if they perceive
any one in the least dependent upon them, they immediately
begin to tyrannize. A more mean and selfish vice certainly
does not exist in the world. I am trying a different plan
with them. I make my presence with any of them a favor, and
when they show any impudence, I threaten to leave them, and
if they don't amend, I put my threat into execution. By a
bold, free course among them I have had not the least
difficulty in managing the most fierce. They are in one sense
fierce, and in another the greatest cowards in the world. A
kick would, I am persuaded, quell the courage of the bravest
of them. Add to this the report which many of them verily
believe, that I am a great wizard, and you will understand
how I can with ease visit any of them. Those who do not love,
fear me, and so truly in their eyes am I possessed of
supernatural power, some have not hesitated to affirm I am
capable of even raising the dead! The people of a village
visited by a French brother actually believed it. Their
belief of my powers, I suppose, accounts, too, for the fact
that I have not missed a single article either from the house
or wagon since I came among them, and this, although all my
things lay scattered about the room, while crammed with
patients."
It was unfortunate that the teacher whom Livingstone stationed with
Bubi's people was seized with a violent fever, so that he was obliged to
bring him away. As for Bubi himself, he was afterward burned to death by
an explosion of gunpowder, which one of his sorcerers was trying, by
means of burnt roots, to _un_-bewitch.
In advancing, Livingstone had occasion to pass through a part of the
great Kalahari desert, and here he met with Sekomi, a chief of the
Bamangwato, from whom also he received a most friendly reception. The
ignorance of this tribe he found to be exceedingly great:
"Their conceptions of the Deity are of the most vague and
contradictory nature, and the name of God conveys no more to
their understanding than the idea of superiority. Hence they
do not hesitate to apply the name to their chiefs. I was
every day shocked by being addressed by that title, and
though it as often furnished me with a text from which to
tell them of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent, yet it deeply pained me, and I never felt so fully
convinced of the lamentable detoriation of our species. It is
indeed a mournful truth that man has become like the beasts
that perish."
The place was greatly infested by lions, and during Livingstone's visit
an awful occurrence took place that made a great impression on him:
"A woman was actually devoured in her garden during my visit,
and that so near the town that I had frequently walked past
it. It was most affecting to hear the cries of the orphan
children of this woman. During the whole day after her death
the surrounding rocks and valleys rang and re-echoed with
their bitter cries. I frequently thought as I listened to the
loud sobs, painfully indicative of the sorrows of those who
have no hope, that if some of our churches could have heard
their sad wailings, it would have awakened the firm
resolution to do more for the heathen than they have done."
Poor Sekomi advanced a new theory of regeneration which Livingstone was
unable to work out:
"On one occasion Sekomi, having sat by me in the hut for some
time in deep thought, at length addressing me by a pompous
title said, 'I wish you would change my heart. Give me
medicine to change it, for it is proud, proud and angry,
angry always.' I lifted up the Testament and was about to
tell him of the only way in which the heart can be changed,
but he interrupted me by saying, 'Nay, I wish to have it
changed by medicine, to drink and have it changed at once,
for it is always very proud and very uneasy, and continually
angry with some one.' He then rose and went away."
A third tribe visited at this time was the Bakaa, and here, too,
Livingstone was able to put in force his wonderful powers of management.
Shortly before, the Bakaa had murdered a trader and his company. When
Livingstone appeared their consciences smote them, and, with the
exception of the chief and two attendants, the whole of the people fled
from his presence. Nothing could allay their terror, till, a dish of
porridge having been prepared, they saw Livingstone partake of it along
with themselves without distrust. When they saw him lie down and fall
asleep they were quite at their ease. Thereafter he began to speak
to them:
"I had more than ordinary pleasure in telling these murderers
of the precious blood which cleanseth from all sin. I bless
God that He has conferred on one so worthless the
distinguished privilege and honor of being the first
messenger of mercy that ever trod these regions. Its being
also the first occasion on which I had ventured to address a
number of Bechuanas in their own tongue without reading it,
renders it to myself one of peculiar interest. I felt more
freedom than I had anticipated, but I have an immense amount
of labor still before me, ere I can call myself a master of
Sichuana. This journey discloses to me that when I have
acquired the Batlapi, there is another and perhaps more
arduous task to be accomplished in the other dialects, but by
the Divine assistance I hope I shall be enabled to conquer.
When I left the Bakaa, the chief sent his son with a number
of his people to see me safe part of the way to the
Makalaka."
On his way home, in passing through Bubi's country, he was visited by
sixteen of the people of Sebehwe, a chief who had successfully withstood
Mosilikatse, but whose cowardly neighbors, under the influence of
jealousy, had banded together to deprive him of what they had not had
the courage to defend. Consequently he had been driven into the sandy
desert, and his object in sending to Livingstone was to solicit his
advice and protection, as he wished to come out, in order that his
people might grow corn, etc. Sebehwe, like many of the other people of
the country, had the notion that if he got a single white man to live
with him, he would be quite secure. It was no wonder that Livingstone
early acquired the strong conviction that if missions could only be
scattered over Africa, their immediate effect in promoting the
tranquillity of the continent could hardly be over-estimated.
We have given these details somewhat fully, because they show that
before he had been a year in the country Livingstone had learned how to
rule the Africans. From the very first, his genial address, simple and
fearless manner, and transparent kindliness formed a spell which rarely
failed. He had great faith in the power of humor. He was never afraid of
a man who had a hearty laugh. By a playful way of dealing with the
people, he made them feel at ease with him, and afterward he could be
solemn enough when the occasion required. His medical knowledge helped
him greatly; but for permanent influence all would have been in vain if
he had not uniformly observed the rules of justice, good feeling, and
good manners. Often ha would say that the true road to influence was
patient continuance in well-doing. It is remarkable that, from the very
first, he should have seen the charm of that method which he employed so
successfully to the end.
In the course of this journey, Livingstone was within ten days of Lake
'Ngami, the lake of which he had heard at the Cape, and which he
actually discovered in 1849; and he might have discovered it now, had
discovery alone been his object. Part of his journey was performed on
foot, in consequence of the draught oxen having become sick:
"Some of my companions," he says in his first book, "who had
recently joined us, and did not know that I understood a
little of their speech, were overheard by me discussing my
appearance and powers: 'He is not strong, he is quite slim,
and only appears stout because he puts himself in those bags
(trousers); he will soon knock up.' This caused my Highland
blood to rise, and made me despise the fatigue of keeping
them all at the top of their speed for days together, and
until I heard them expressing proper opinions of my
pedestrian powers."
We have seen how full Livingstone's heart was of the missionary spirit;
how intent he was on making friends of the natives, and how he could
already preach in one dialect, and was learning another. But the
activity of his mind enabled him to give attention at the same time to
other matters. He was already pondering the structure of the great
African Continent, and carefully investigating the process of
desiccation that had been going on for a long time, and had left much
uncomfortable evidence of its activity in many parts. In the desert, he
informs his friend Watt that no fewer than thirty-two edible roots and
forty-three fruits grew without cultivation. He had the rare faculty of
directing his mind at the full stretch of its power to one great object,
and yet, apparently without effort, giving minute and most careful
attention to many other matters,--all bearing, however, on the same
great end.
A very interesting letter to Dr. Risdon Bennett, dated Kuruman, 18th
December, 1841, gives an account of his first year's work from the
medical and scientific point of view. First, he gives an amusing picture
of the Bechuana chiefs, and then some details of his medical practice:
The people are all under the feudal system of government, the
chieftainship is hereditary, and although the chief is
usually the greatest ass, and the most insignificant of the
tribe in appearance, the people pay a deference to him which
is truly astonishing.... I feel the benefit often of your
instructions, and of those I got through your kindness. Here
I have an immense practice. I have patients now under
treatment who have walked 130 miles for my advice; and when
these go home, others will come for the same purpose. This is
the country for a medical man if he wants a large practice,
but he must leave fees out of the question! The Bechuanas
have a great deal more disease than I expected to find among
a savage nation; but little else can be expected, for they
are nearly naked, and endure the scorching heat of the day
and the chills of the night in that condition. Add to this
that they are absolutely omnivorous. Indigestion, rheumatism,
opthalmia are the prevailing diseases.... Many very bad cases
were brought to me, sometimes, when traveling, my wagon was
quite besieged by their blind and halt and lame. What a
mighty effect would be produced if one of the seventy
disciples were among them to heal them all by a word! The
Bechuanas resort to the Bushmen and the poor people that live
in the desert for doctors. The fact of my dealing in that
line a little is so strange, and now my fame has spread far
and wide. But if one of Christ's apostles were here, I should
think he would be very soon known all over the continent to
Abyssinia. The great deal of work I have had to do in
attending to the sick has proved beneficial to me, for they
make me speak the language perpetually, and if I were
inclined to be lazy in learning it, they would prevent me
indulging the propensity. And they are excellent patients,
too, besides. There is no wincing; everything prescribed is
done _instanter_. Their only failing is that they become
tired of a long course. But in any operation, even the women
sit unmoved. I have been quite astonished again and again at
their calmness. In cutting out a tumor, an inch in diameter,
they sit and talk as if they felt nothing. 'A man like me
never cries,' they say, 'they are children that cry.' And it
is a fact that the men never cry. But when the Spirit of God
works on their minds they cry most piteously. Sometimes in
church they endeavor to screen themselves from the eyes of
the preacher by hiding under the forms or covering their
heads with their karosses as a remedy against their
convictions. And when they find that won't do, they rush out
of the church and run with all their might, crying as if the
hand of death were behind them. One would think, when they
got away, there they would remain; but no, there they are in
their places at the very next meeting. It is not to be
wondered at that they should exhibit agitations of body when
the mind is affected, as they are quite unaccustomed to
restrain their feelings. But that the hardened beings should
be moved mentally at all is wonderful indeed. If you saw them
in their savage state you would feel the force of this
more.... _N.B._--I have got for Professor Owen specimens of
the incubated ostrich in abundance, and am waiting for an
opportunity to transmit the box to the college. I tried to
keep for you some of the fine birds of the interior, but the
weather was so horribly hot they were putrid in a few hours.
When he returned to Kuruman in June, 1842, he found that no instructions
had as yet come from the Directors as to his permanent quarters. He was
preparing for another journey when news arrived that contrary to his
advice, Sebehwe had left the desert where he was encamped, had been
treacherously attacked by the chief Mahura, and that many of his people,
including women and children, had been savagely murdered. What
aggravated the case was that several native Christians from Kuruman had
been at the time with Sebehwe, and that these were accused of having
acted treacherously by him. But now no native would expose himself to
the expected rage of Sebehwe, so that for want of attendants Livingstone
could not go to him. He was obliged to remain for some months about
Kuruman, itinerating to the neighboring tribes, and taking part in the
routine work of the station: that is to say preaching, printing,
building a chapel at an out-station, prescribing for the sick, and many
things else that would have been intolerable, he said, to a man of
"clerical dignity."
He was able to give his father a very encouraging report of the mission
work (July 13, 1842): "The work of God goes on here notwithstanding all
our infirmities. Souls are gathered in continually, and sometimes from
among those you would never have expected to see turning to the Lord.
Twenty-four were added to the Church last month, and there are several
inquirers. At Motito, a French station about thirty-three miles
northeast of this, there has been an awakening, and I hope much good
will result. I have good news, too, from Rio de Janeiro. The Bibles that
have been distributed are beginning to cause a stir."
The state of the country continued so disturbed that it was not till
February, 1843, that he was able to set out for the village where
Sebehwe had taken up his residence with the remains of his tribe. This
visit he undertook at great personal risk. Though looking at first very
ill-pleased, Sebehwe treated him in a short time in a most friendly way,
and on the Sunday after his arrival, sent a herald to proclaim that on
that day nothing should be done but pray to God and listen to the words
of the foreigner. He himself listened with great attention while
Livingstone told him of Jesus and the resurrection, and the missionary
was often interrupted by the questions of the chief. Here, then, was
another chief pacified, and brought under the preaching of the gospel.
Livingstone then passed on to the country of the Bakhatla, where he had
purposed to erect his mission-station. The country was fertile, and the
people industrious, and among other industries was an iron manufactory,
to which as a bachelor he got admission, whereas married men were wont
to be excluded, through fear that they would bewitch the iron! When he
asked the chief if he would like him to come and be his missionary, he
held up his hands and said, "Oh, I shall dance if you do; I shall
collect all my people to hoe for you a garden, and you will get more
sweet reed and corn than myself." The cautious Directors at home,
however, had sent no instructions as to Livingstone's station, and he
could only say to the chief that he would tell them of his desire for a
missionary.
At a distance of five days' journey beyond the Bakhatla was situated the
village of Sechéle, chief of the Bakwains, afterward one of
Livingstone's greatest friends. Sechéle had been enraged at him for not
visiting him the year before, and threatened him with mischief. It
happened that his only child was ill when the missionary arrived, and
also the child of one of his principal men. Livingstone's treatment of
both was successful, and Sechéle had not an angry word. Some of his
questions struck the heart of the missionary:
"'Since it is true that all who die unforgiven are lost
forever, why did your nation not come to tell us of it before
now? My ancestors are all gone, and none of them knew
anything of what you tell me. How is this?' I thought
immediately," says Livingstone, "of the guilt of the Church,
but did not confess. I told him multitudes in our own country
were like himself, so much in love with their sins. My
ancestors had spent a great deal of time in trying to
persuade them, and yet after all many of them by refusing
were lost. We now wish to tell all the world about a Saviour,
and if men did not believe, the guilt would be entirely
theirs. Sechéle has been driven from another part of his
country from that in which he was located last year, and so
has Bubi, so that the prospects I had of benefiting them by
native teachers are for the present darkened."
Among other things that Livingstone found time for in these wanderings
among strange people, was translating hymns into the Sichuana language.
Writing to his father (Bakwain Country, 21st March, 1843), he says:
"Janet may be pleased to learn that I am become a poet, or
rather a poetaster, in Sichuana. Half a dozen of my hymns
were lately printed in a collection of the French brethren.
One of them is a translation of 'There is a fountain filled
with blood;' another, 'Jesus shall reign where'er the sun;'
others are on 'The earth being filled with the glory of the
Lord,' 'Self-dedication,' 'Invitation to Sinners,' 'The soul
that loves God finds him everywhere.' Janet may try to make
English ones on these latter subjects if she can, and Agnes
will doubtless set them to music on the same condition. I do
not boast of having done this, but only mention it to let you
know that I am getting a little better fitted for the great
work of a missionary, that your hearts may be drawn out to
more prayer for the success of the gospel proclaimed by my
feeble lips."
Livingstone was bent on advancing in the direction of the country of the
Matebele and their chief Mosilikatse, but the dread of that terrible
warrior prevented him from getting Bakwains to accompany him, and being
thus unable to rig out a wagon, he was obliged to travel on oxback. In a
letter to Dr. Risdon Bennett (30th June, 1843), he gives a lively
description of this mode of traveling: "It is rough traveling, as you
can conceive. The skin is so loose there is no getting one's great-coat,
which has to serve both as saddle and blanket, to stick on; and then the
long horns in front, with which he can give one a punch in the abdomen
if he likes, make us sit as bolt upright as dragoons. In this manner I
traveled more than 400 miles." Visits to some of the villages of the
Bakalahari gave him much pleasure. He was listened to with great
attention, and while sitting by their fires and listening to their
traditionary tales, he intermingled the story of the Cross with their
conversation, and it was by far the happiest portion of his journey.
The people were a poor, degraded, enslaved race, who hunted for other
tribes to procure them skins; they were far from wells, and had their
gardens far from their houses, in order to have their produce safe from
the chiefs who visited them.
Coming on to his old friends the Bakaa, he found them out of humor with
him, accusing him of having given poison to a native who had been seized
with fever on occasion of his former visit. Consequently he could get
little or nothing to eat, and had to content himself, as he wrote to his
friends, with the sumptuous feasts of his imagination. With his usual
habit of discovering good in all his troubles, however, he found cause
for thankfulness at their stinginess, for in coming down a steep pass,
absorbed with the questions which the people were putting to him, he
forgot where he was, lost his footing, and, striking his hand between a
rock and his Bible which he was carrying, he suffered a compound
fracture of his finger. His involuntary low diet saved him from taking
fever, and the finger was healing favorably, when a sudden visit in the
middle of the night from a lion, that threw them all into consternation,
made him, without thinking, discharge his revolver at the visitor, and
the recoil hurt him more than the shot did the lion. It rebroke his
finger, and the second fracture was worse than the first. "The
Bakwains," he says, "who were most attentive to my wants during the
whole journey of more than 400 miles, tried to comfort me when they saw
the blood again flowing, by saying, 'You have hurt yourself, but you
have redeemed us: henceforth we will only swear by you.' Poor
creatures," he writes to Dr. Bennett, "I wished they had felt gratitude
for the blood that was shed for their precious souls."
Returning to Kuruman from this journey, in June, 1843, Livingstone was
delighted to find at length a letter from the Directors of the Society
authorizing the formation of a settlement in the regions beyond. He
found another letter that greatly cheered him, from a Mrs. M'Robert, the
wife of art Independent minister at Cambuslang (near Blantyre), who had
collected and now sent him £12 for a native agent, and was willing, on
the part of some young friends, to send presents of clothing for the
converts. In acknowledging this letter, Livingstone poured out his very
heart, so full was he of gratitude and delight. He entreated the givers
to consider Mebalwe as their own agent, and to concentrate their prayers
upon him, for prayer, he thought, was always more efficacious when it
could be said, "One thing have I desired of the Lord." As to the present
of clothing, he simply entreated his friends to send nothing of the
kind; such things demoralized the recipients, and bred endless
jealousies. If he were allowed to charge something for the clothes, he
would be pleased to have them, but on no other terms.
Writing to the Secretary of the Society, Rev. A. Tidman (24th June,
1843), and referring to the past success of the Mission in the nearer
localities, he says: "If you could realize this fact as fully as those
on the spot can, you would be able to enter into the feelings of
irrepressible delight with which I hail the decision of the Directors
that we go forward to the dark interior. May the Lord enable me to
consecrate my whole being to the glorious work!"
In this communication to the Directors Livingstone modestly, but frankly
and firmly, gives them his mind on some points touched on in their
letter to him. In regard to his favorite measure--native agency--he is
glad that a friend has remitted money for the employment of one agent,
and that others have promised the means of employing other two. On
another subject he had a communication to make to them which evidently
cost him no ordinary effort. In his more private letters to his friends,
from an early period after entering Africa, he had expressed himself
very freely, almost contemptuously, on the distribution of the
laborers. There was far too much clustering about the Cape Colony, and
the district immediately beyond it, and a woeful slowness to strike out
with the fearless chivalry that became missionaries of the Cross, and
take possession of the vast continent beyond. All his letters reveal the
chafing of his spirit with this confinement of evangelistic energy in
the face of so vast a field--this huddling together of laborers in
sparsely peopled districts, instead of sending them forth over the whole
of Africa, India, and China, to preach the gospel to every creature. He
felt deeply that both the Church at home, and many of the missionaries
on the spot, had a poor conception of missionary duty, out of which came
little faith, little effort, little expectation, with a miserable
tendency to exaggerate their own evils and grievances, and fall into
paltry squabbles which would not have been possible if they had been
fired with the ambition to win the world for Christ.
But what it was a positive relief for him to whisper in the ear of an
intimate friend, it demanded the courage of a hero to proclaim to the
Directors of a great Society. It was like impugning their whole policy
and arraigning their wisdom. But Livingstone could not say one thing in
private and another in public. Frankly and fearlessly he proclaimed
his views:
"The conviction to which I refer is that a much larger share
of the benevolence of the Church and of missionary exertion
is directed into this country than the amount of population,
as compared with other countries, and the success attending
those efforts, seem to call for. This conviction has been
forced upon me, both by a personal inspection, more extensive
than that which has fallen to the lot of any other, either
missionary or trader, and by the sentiments of other
missionaries who have investigated the subject according to
their opportunities. In reference to the population, I may
mention that I was led in England to believe that the
population of the interior was dense, and now since I have
come to this country I have conversed with many, both of our
Society and of the French, and none of them would reckon up
the number of 30,000 Bechuanas."
He then proceeds to details in a most characteristic way, giving the
number of huts in every village, and being careful in every case, as his
argument proceeded on there being a small population, rather to
overstate than understate the number:
"In view of these facts and the confirmation of them I have
received from both French and English brethren, computing the
population much below what I have stated, I confess I feel
grieved to hear of the arrival of new missionaries. Nor am I
the only one who deplores their appointment to this country.
Again and again have I been pained at heart to hear the
question put, Where will these new brethren find fields of
labor in this country? Because I know that in India or China
there are fields large enough for all their energies. I am
very far from undervaluing the success which has attended the
labors of missionaries in this land. No! I gratefully
acknowledge the wonders God hath wrought, and I feel that the
salvation of one soul is of more value than all the effort
that has been expended; but we are to seek the field where
there is a possibility that most souls will be converted, and
it is this consideration which makes me earnestly call the
attention of the Directors to the subject of statistics. If
these were actually returned--and there would be very little
difficulty in doing so--it might, perhaps, be found that
there is not a country better supplied with missionaries in
the world, and that in proportion to the number of agents
compared to the amount of population, the success may be
inferior to most other countries where efforts have been
made."
Finding that a brother missionary was willing to accompany him to the
station he had fixed on among the Bakhatlas, and enable him to set to
work with the necessary arrangements, Livingstone set out with him in
the beginning of August, 1843, and arrived at his destination after a
fortnight's journey. Writing to his family, "in sight of the hills of
Bakhatla," August 21st, 1843, he says: "We are in company with a party
of three hunters: one of them from the West Indies, and two from
India--Mr. Pringle from Tinnevelly, and Captain Steel of the Coldstream
Guards, aide-de-camp to the Governor of Madras.... The Captain is the
politest of the whole, well versed in the classics, and possessed of
much general knowledge." Captain Steele, now General Sir Thomas Steele,
proved one of Livingstone's best and most constant friends. In one
respect the society of gentlemen who came to hunt would not have been
sought by Livingstone, their aims and pursuits being so different from
his; but he got on with them wonderfully. In some instances these
strangers were thoroughly sympathetic, but not in all. When they were
not sympathetic on religion, he had a strong conviction that his first
duty as a servant of Christ was to commend his religion by his life and
spirit--by integrity, civility, kindness, and constant readiness to deny
himself in obliging others; having thus secured, their esteem and
confidence, he would take such quiet opportunities as presented
themselves to get near their consciences on his Master's behalf. He took
care that there should be no moving about on the day of rest, and that
the outward demeanor of all should be befitting a Christian company. For
himself, while he abhorred the indiscriminate slaughter of animals for
mere slaughter's sake, he thought well of the chase as a means of
developing courage, promptness of action in time of danger, protracted
endurance of hunger and thirst, determination in the pursuit of an
object, and other qualities befitting brave and powerful men. The
respect and affection with which he inspired the gentlemen who were thus
associated with him was very remarkable. Doubtless, with his quick
apprehension, he learned a good deal from their society of the ways and
feelings of a class with whom hitherto he had hardly ever been in
contact. The large resources with which they were furnished, in contrast
to his own, excited no feeling of envy, nor even a desire to possess
their ample means, unless he could have used them to extend missionary
operations; and the gentlemen themselves would sometimes remark that the
missionaries were more comfortable than they. Though they might at times
spend thousands of pounds where Livingstone did not spend as many
pence, and would be provided with horses, servants, tents, and stores,
enough to secure comfort under almost any conditions, they had not that
key to the native heart and that power to command the willing services
of native attendants which belonged so remarkably to the missionary.
"When we arrive at a spot where we intend to spend the night," writes
Livingstone to his family, "all hands immediately unyoke the oxen. Then
one or two of the company collect wood; one of us strikes up a fire,
another gets out the water-bucket and fills the kettle; a piece of meat
is thrown on the fire, and if we have biscuits, we are at our coffee in
less than half an hour after arriving. Our friends, perhaps, sit or
stand shivering at their fire for two or three hours before they get
their things ready, and are glad occasionally of a cup of coffee
from us."
The first act of the missionaries on arriving at their destination was
to have an interview with the chief, and ask whether he desired a
missionary. Having an eye to the beads, guns, and other things, of which
white men seemed always to have an ample store, the chief and his men
gave them a cordial welcome, and Livingstone next proceeded to make a
purchase of land. This, like Abraham with the sons of Heth, he insisted
should be done in legal form, and for this purpose he drew up a written
contract to which, after it was fully explained to them, both parties
attached their signatures or marks. They then proceeded to the erection
of a hut fifty feet by eighteen, not getting much help from the
Bakhatlas, who devolved such labors on the women, but being greatly
helped by the native deacon, Mebalwe. All this Livingstone and his
companion had done on their own responsibility, and in the hope that the
Directors would approve of it. But if they did not, he told them that he
was at their disposal "to go anywhere--_provided it be_ FORWARD."
The progress of medical and scientific work during this period is noted
in a letter to Dr. Risdon Bennett, dated 30th June, 1843. In addition to
full details of the missionary work, this letter enters largely into the
state of disease in South Africa, and records some interesting cases,
medical and surgical. Still more interesting, perhaps, is the evidence
it affords of the place in Livingstone's attention which began to be
occupied by three great subjects of which we shall hear much
anon--Fever, Tsetse, and "the Lake." Fever he considered the greatest
barrier to the evangelization of Africa. Tsetse, an insect like a common
fly, destroyed horses and oxen, so that many traders lost literally
every ox in their team. As for the Lake, it lay somewhat beyond the
outskirts of his new district, and was reported terrible for fever. He
heard that Mr. Moffat intended to visit it, but he was somewhat alarmed
lest his friend should suffer. It was not Moffat, but Livingstone,
however, that first braved the risks of that fever swamp.
A subject of special scientific interest to the missionary during this
period was--the desiccation of Africa. On this topic he addressed a long
letter to Dr. Buckland in 1843, of which, considerably to his regret, no
public notice appears to have been taken, and perhaps the letter never
reached him. The substance of this paper may, however, be gathered from
a communication subsequently made to the Royal Geographical Society[20]
after his first impression had been confirmed by enlarged observation
and discovery. Around, and north of Kuruman, he had found many
indications of a much larger supply of water in a former age. He
ascribed the desiccation to the gradual elevation of the western part of
the country. He found traces of a very large ancient river which flowed
nearly north and south to a large lake, including the bed of the present
Orange River; in fact, he believed that the whole country south of Lake
'Ngami presented in ancient times very much the same appearance as the
basin north of that lake does now, and that the southern lake
disappeared when a fissure was made in the ridge through which the
Orange River now proceeds to the sea. He could even indicate the spot
where the river and the lake met, for some hills there had caused an
eddy in which was found a mound of calcareous tufa and travertine, full
of fossil bones. These fossils he was most eager to examine, in order to
determine the time of the change; but on his first visit he had no time,
and when he returned, he was suddenly called away to visit a
missionary's child, a hundred miles off. It happened that he was never
in the same locality again, and had therefore no opportunity to complete
his investigation.
[Footnote 20: See Journal, vol. xxvii. p. 356.]
Dr. Livingstone's mind had that wonderful power which belongs to some
men of the highest gifts, of passing with the utmost rapidity, not only
from subject to subject, but from one mood or key to another entirely
different. In a letter to his family, written about this time, we have a
characteristic instance. On one side of the sheet is a prolonged
outburst of tender Christian love and lamentation over a young attendant
who had died of fever suddenly; on the other side, he gives a map of the
Bakhatla country with its rivers and mountains, and is quite at home in
the geographical details, crowning his description with some sentimental
and half-ludicrous lines of poetry. No reasonable man will fancy that in
the wailings of his heart there was any levity or want of sincerity.
What we are about to copy merits careful consideration: first, as
evincing the depth and tenderness of his love for these black savages;
next, as showing that it was pre-eminently Christian love, intensified
by his vivid view of the eternal world, and belief in Christ as the only
Saviour; and, lastly, as revealing the secret of the affection which
these poor fellows bore to him in return. The intensity of the scrutiny
which he directs on his heart, and the severity of the judgment which he
seems to pass on himself, as if he had not done all he might have done
for the spiritual good of this young man, show with what intense
conscientiousness he tried to discharge his missionary duty:
"Poor Sehamy, where art thou now? Where lodges thy soul
to-night? Didst thou think of what I told thee as thou
turnedst from side to side in distress? I could now do
anything for thee. I could weep for thy soul. But now nothing
can be done. Thy fate is fixed. Oh, am I guilty of the blood
of thy soul, my poor dear Sehamy? If so, how shall I look
upon thee in the judgment? But I told thee of a Saviour;
didst thou think of Him, and did He lead thee through the
dark valley? Did He comfort as He only can? Help me, O Lord
Jesus, to be faithful to every one. Remember me, and let me
not be guilty of the blood of souls. This poor young man was
the leader of the party. He governed the others, and most
attentive he was to me. He anticipated my every want. He kept
the water-calabash at his head at night, and if I awoke, he
was ready to give me a draught immediately. When the meat was
boiled he secured the best portion for me, the best place for
sleeping, the best of everything. Oh, where is he now? He
became ill after leaving a certain tribe, and believed he had
been poisoned. Another of the party and he ate of a certain
dish given them by a woman whom they had displeased, and
having met this man yesterday he said, 'Sehamy is gone to
heaven, and I am almost dead by the poison given us by that
woman.' I don't believe they took any poison, but they do,
and their imaginations are dreadfully excited when they
entertain that belief."
The same letter intimates that in case his family should have arranged
to emigrate to America, as he had formerly advised them to do, he had
sent home a bill of which £10 was to aid the emigration, and £10 to be
spent on clothes for himself. In regard to the latter sum, he now wished
them to add it to the other, so that his help might be more substantial;
and for himself he would make his old clothes serve for another year.
The emigration scheme, which he thought would have added to the comfort
of his parents and sisters, was not, however, carried into effect. The
advice to his family to emigrate proceeded from deep convictions. In a
subsequent letter (4th December, 1850) he writes: "If I could only be
with you for a week, you would goon be pushing on in the world. The
world is ours. Our Father made it to be inhabited, and many shall run
to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. _It will be increased more
by emigration than by missionaries._" He held it to be God's wish that
the unoccupied parts of the earth should be possessed, and he believed
in Christian colonization as a great means of spreading the gospel. We
shall see afterward that to plant English and Scotch colonies in Africa
became one of his master ideas and favorite schemes.
CHAPTER IV.
FIRST TWO STATIONS--MABOTSA AND CHONUANE.
A.D. 1843-1847.
Description of Mabotsa--A favorite hymn--General reading--Mabotsa
infested with lions--Livingstone's encounter--The native deacon who
saved him--His Sunday-school--Marriage to Mary Moffat--Work at
Mabotsa--Proposed institution for training native agents--Letter to his
mother--Trouble at Mabotsa--Noble sacrifice of Livingstone--Goes to
Sechéle and the Bakwains--New station at Chonuane--Interest shown by
Sechéle--Journeys eastward--The Boers and the Transvaal--Their
occupation of the country, and treatment of the natives--Work among the
Bakwains--Livingstone's desire to move on--Theological conflict at
home--His view of it--His scientific labors and miscellaneous
employments.
Describing what was to be his new home to his friend Watt from Kuruman,
27th September, 1843, Livingstone says: "The Bakhatla have cheerfully
offered to remove to a more favorable position than they at present
occupy. We have fixed upon a most delightful valley, which we hope to
make the centre of our sphere of operations in the interior. It is
situated in what poetical gents like you would call almost an
amphitheatre of mountains. The mountain range immediately in the rear of
the spot where we have fixed our residence is called Mabotsa, or a
marriage-feast. May the Lord lift upon us the light of his countenance,
so that by our feeble instrumentality many may thence be admitted to the
marriage-feast of the Lamb. The people are as raw as may well be
imagined; they have not the least desire but for the things of the
earth, and it must be a long time ere we can gain their attention to the
things which are above."
Something led him in his letter to Mr. Watt to talk of the old monks,
and the spots they selected for their establishments. He goes on to
write lovingly of what was good in some of the old fathers of the
mediæval Church, despite the strong feeling of many to the contrary;
indicating thus early the working of that catholic spirit which was
constantly expanding in later years, which could separate the good in
any man from all its evil surroundings, and think of it thankfully and
admiringly. In the following extract we get a glimpse of a range of
reading much wider than most would probably have supposed likely:
"Who can read the sermons of St. Bernard, the meditations of
St. Augustine, etc., without saying, whatever other faults
they had: They thirsted, and now they are filled. That hymn:
of St. Bernard, on the name of Christ, although in what might
he termed dog-Latin, pleases me so; it rings in my ears as I
wander across the wide, wide wilderness, and makes me wish I
was more like them--
"Jesu, dulcis memoria, Jesu, spes poenitentibus,
Dans cordi vera gaudia; Quam pius es petentibus!
Sed super mel et omnia, Quam bonus es quærentibus!
Ejus dulcis præsentia. Sed quid invenientibus!
Nil canitur suavius, Jesu, dulcedo cordium,
Nil auditur jucundius, Fons, rivus, lumen mentium,
Nil cogitatur dulcius, Excedens omne gaudium,
Quam Jesus Dei filius. Et omne desiderium."
Livingstone was in the habit of fastening inside the boards of his
journals, or writing on the fly-leaf, verses that interested him
specially. In one of these volumes this hymn is copied at full length.
In another we find a very yellow newspaper clipping of the "Song of the
Shirt." In the same volume a clipping containing "The Bridge of
Sighs," beginning
"One more unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death."
In another we have Coleridge's lines:
"He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
In another, hardly legible on the marble paper, we find:
"So runs my dream: but what am I?
An infant crying in the night;
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry."
All Livingstone's personal friends testify that, considering the state
of banishment in which he lived, his acquaintance with English
literature was quite remarkable. When a controversy arose in America as
to the genuineness of his letters to the _New York Herald_, the
familiarity of the writer with the poems of Whittier was made an
argument against him. But Livingstone knew a great part of the poetry of
Longfellow, Whittier, and others by heart.
There was one drawback to the new locality: it was infested with lions.
All the world knows the story of the encounter at Mabotsa, which was so
near ending Livingstone's career, when the lion seized him by the
shoulder, tore his flesh, and crushed his bone. Nothing in all
Livingstone's history took more hold of the popular imagination, or was
more frequently inquired about when he came home[21]. By a kind of
miracle his life was saved, but the encounter left him lame for life of
the arm which the lion crunched[22]. But the world generally does not
know that Mebalwe, the native who was with him, and who saved his life
by diverting the lion when his paw was on his head, was the teacher whom
Mrs. M'Robert's twelve pounds had enabled him to employ. Little did the
good woman think that this offering would indirectly be the means of
preserving the life of Livingstone for the wonderful work of the next
thirty years! When, on being attacked by Mebalwe, the lion left
Livingstone, and sprang upon him, he bit his thigh, then dashed toward
another man, and caught him by the shoulder, when in a moment, the
previous shots taking effect, he fell down dead. Sir Bartle Frere, in
his obituary notice of Livingstone read to the Royal Geographical
Society, remarked: "For thirty years afterward all his labors and
adventures, entailing such exertion and fatigue, were undertaken with a
limb so maimed that it was painful for him to raise a fowling-piece, or
in fact to place the left arm in any position above the level of the
shoulder."
[Footnote 21: He did not speak of it spontaneously, and sometimes he
gave unexpected answers to questions put to him about it. To one person
who asked very earnestly what were his thoughts when the lion was above
him, he answered, "I was thinking what part of me he would eat first"--a
grotesque thought, which some persons considered strange in so good a
man, but which was quite in accordance with human experience in similar
circumstances.]
[Footnote 22: The false joint in the crushed arm was the mark by which
the body of Livingstone was identified when brought home by his
followers in 1873.]
In his _Missionary Travels_ Livingstone says that but for the
importunities of his friends, he meant to have kept this story in store
to tell his children in his dotage. How little he made of it at the time
will be seen from the following allusion to it in a letter to his
father, dated 27th July, 1844. After telling how the attacks of the
lions drew the people of Mabotsa away from the irrigating operations he
was engaged in, he says:
"At last, one of the lions destroyed nine sheep in broad
daylight on a hill just opposite our house. All the people
immediately ran over to it, and, contrary to my custom, I
imprudently went with them, in order to see how they acted,
and encourage them to destroy him. They surrounded him
several times, but he managed to break through the circle. I
then got tired. In coming home I had to come near to the end
of the hill. They were then close upon the lion and had
wounded him. He rushed out from the bushes which concealed
him from view, and bit me on the arm so as to break the bone.
It is now nearly well, however, feeling weak only from having
been confined in one position so long; and I ought to praise
Him who delivered me from so great a danger. I hope I shall
never forget his mercy. You need not be sorry for me, for
long before this reaches you it will be quite as strong as
ever it was. Gratitude is the only feeling we ought to have
in remembering the event. Do not mention this to any one. I
do not like to be talked about."
In a letter to the Directors, Livingstone briefly adverts to Mebalwe's
service on this occasion, but makes it a peg on which to hang some
strong remarks on that favorite topic--the employment of native agency:
"Our native assistant Mebalwe has been of considerable value
to the Mission. In endeavoring to save my life he nearly lost
his own, for he was caught and wounded severely, but both
before being laid aside, and since his recovery, he has shown
great willingness to be useful. The cheerful manner in which
he engages with us in manual labor in the station, and his
affectionate addresses to his countrymen, are truly
gratifying. Mr. E. took him to some of the neighboring
villages lately, in order to introduce him to his work; and I
intend to depart to-morrow for the same purpose to several of
the villages situated northeast of this. In all there may be
a dozen considerable villages situated at convenient
distances around us, and we each purpose to visit them
statedly. It would be an _immense advantage_ to the cause had
we many such agents."
Another proof that his pleas for native agency, published in some of the
Missionary Magazines, were telling at home, was the receipt of a
contribution for the employment of a native helper, amounting to £15,
from a Sunday-school in Southampton. Touched with this proof of youthful
sympathy, Livingstone addressed a long letter of thanks to the
Southampton teachers and children, desiring to deepen their interest in
the work, and concluding with an account of his Sunday-school:
"I yesterday commenced school for the first time at Mabotsa,
and the poor little naked things came with fear and
trembling. A native teacher assisted, and the chief collected
as many of them as he could, or I believe we should have had
none. The reason is, the women make us the hobgoblins of
their children, telling them 'these white men bite children,
feed them with dead men's brains, and all manner of nonsense.
We are just commencing our mission among them."
A new star now appeared in Livingstone's horizon, destined to give a
brighter complexion to his life, and a new illustration to the name
Mabotsa. Till this year (1844) he had steadily repudiated all thoughts
of marriage, thinking it better to be independent. Nor indeed had he met
with any one to induce him to change his mind. Writing in the end of
1843 to his friend Watt, he had said: "There's no outlet for me when I
begin to think of getting married but that of sending home an
advertisement to the _Evangelical Magazine_, and if I get very old, it
must be for some decent sort of widow. In the meantime I am too busy to
think of any thing of the kind." But soon after the Moffats came back
from England to Kuruman, their eldest daughter Mary rapidly effected a
revolution in Livingstone's ideas of matrimony. They became engaged. In
announcing his approaching marriage to the Directors, he makes it plain
that he had carefully considered the bearing which this step might have
on his usefulness as a missionary. No doubt if he had foreseen the very
extraordinary work to which he was afterwards to be called, he might
have come to a different conclusion. But now, apparently, he was fixed
and settled. Mabotsa would become a centre from which native missionary
agents would radiate over a large circumference. His own life-work would
resemble Mr. Moffat's. For influencing the women and children of such a
place, a Christian lady was indispensable, and who so likely to do it
well as one born in Africa, the daughter of an eminent and honored
missionary, herself familiar with missionary life, and gifted with the
winning manner and the ready helping hand that were so peculiarly
adapted for this work? The case was as clear as possible, and
Livingstone was very happy.
On his way home from Kuruman, after the engagement, he writes to her
cheerily from Motito, on 1st August, 1844, chiefly about the household
they were soon to get up; asking her to get her father to order some
necessary articles, and to write to Colesberg about the marriage-license
(and if he did not get it, they would license themselves!), and
concluding thus:
"And now, my dearest, farewell. May God bless you! Let your
affection be towards Him much more than towards me; and, kept
by his mighty power and grace, I hope I shall never give you
cause to regret that you have given me a part. Whatever
friendship we feel towards each other, let us always look to
Jesus as our common friend and guide, and may He shield you
with his everlasting arms from every evil!"
Next month he writes from Mabotsa with full accounts of the progress of
their house, of which he was both architect and builder:
"_Mabotsa, 12th September_, 1844.--I must tell you of the
progress I have made in architecture. The walls are nearly
finished, although the dimensions are 52 feet by 20 outside,
or almost the same size as the house in which you now reside.
I began with stone, but when it was breast-high, I was
obliged to desist from my purpose to build it entirely of
that material by an accident, which, slight as it was, put a
stop to my operations in that line. A stone failing was
stupidly, or rather instinctively, caught by me in its fall
by the left hand, and it nearly broke my arm over again. It
swelled up again, and I fevered so much I was glad of a fire,
although the weather was quite warm. I expected bursting and
discharge, but Baba bound it up nicely, and a few days' rest
put all to rights. I then commenced my architecture, and six
days have brought the walls up a little more than six feet.
"The walls will be finished long before you receive this, and
I suppose the roof too, but I have still the wood of the roof
to seek. It is not, however, far off; and as Mr. E. and I,
with the Kurumanites, got on the roof of the school in a
week, I hope this will not be more than a fortnight or three
weeks. Baba has been most useful to me in making door and
window frames; indeed, if he had not turned out I should not
have been advanced so far as I am. Mr. E.'s finger is the
cause in part of my having no aid from him, but all will come
right at last. It is pretty hard work, and almost enough to
drive love out of my head, but it is not situated there; it
is in my heart, and won't come out unless you behave so as to
quench it!...
"You must try and get a maid of some sort to come with
although it is only old Moyimang; you can't go without some
one, and a Makhatla can't be had for either love or money....
"You must excuse soiled paper, my hands won't wash clean
after dabbling mud all day. And although the above does not
contain evidence of it, you are as dear to me as ever, and
will be as long as our lives are spared.--I am still your
most affectionate
"D. LIVINGSTON."
A few weeks later he writes:
"As I am favored with another opportunity to Kuruman, I
gladly embrace it, and wish I could embrace you at the same
time; but as I cannot, I must do the next best to it, and
while I give you the good news that our work is making
progress, and of course the time of our separation becoming
beautifully less, I am happy in the hope that, by the
messenger who now goes, I shall receive the good news that
you are well and happy, and remembering me with some of that
affection which we bear to each other.... All goes on pretty
well here; the school is sometimes well, sometimes ill
attended. I begin to like it, and I once believed I could
never have any pleasure in such employment. I had a great
objection to school-keeping, but I find in that as in almost
everything else I set myself to as a matter of duty, I soon
became enamored of it. A boy came three times last week, and
on the third time could act as monitor to the rest through a
great portion of the alphabet. He is a real Mokhatla, but I
have lost sight of him again. If I get them on a little, I
shall translate some of your infant-school hymns into
Sichuana rhyme, and you may yet, if you have time, teach them
the tunes to them. I, poor mortal, am as mute as a fish in
regard to singing, and Mr. Englis says I have not a bit of
imagination. Mebalwe teaches them the alphabet in the 'auld
lang syne' tune sometimes, and I heard it sung by some youths
in the gardens yesterday--a great improvement over their old
see-saw tunes indeed. Sometimes we have twenty, sometimes
two, sometimes none at all.
"Give my love to A., and tell her to be sure to keep my
lecture warm. She must not be vexed with herself, that she
was not more frank to me. If she is now pleased, all is
right. I have sisters, and know all of you have your
failings, but I won't love you less for these. And to mother,
too, give my kindest salutation. I suppose I shall get a
lecture from her, too, about the largeness of the house. If
there are too many windows, she can just let me know. I could
build them all up in two days, and let the light come down
the chimney, if that would please. I'll do anything for
peace, except fighting for it. And now I must again, my dear,
dear Mary, bid you good-bye. Accept my expressions as
literally true when I say, I am your most affectionate and
still confiding lover,
"D. LIVINGSTON."
In due time the marriage was solemnized, and Livingstone brought his
wife to Mabotsa. Here they went vigorously to work, Mrs. Livingstone
with her infant-school, and her husband with all the varied agencies,
medical, educational, and pastoral, which his active spirit could bring
to bear upon the people. They were a very superstitious race, and, among
other things, had great faith in rain-making. Livingstone had a famous
encounter with one of their rain-makers, the effect of which, was that
the pretender was wholly nonplused; but instead of being convinced of
the absurdity of their belief, the people were rather disposed to think
that the missionaries did not want them to get rain. Some of them were
workers in iron, who carried their superstitious notions into that
department of life, too, believing that the iron could be smelted only
by the power of medicines, and that those who had not the proper
medicine need not attempt the work. In the hope of breaking down these
absurdities, Livingstone planned a course of popular lectures on the
works of God in creation and providence, to be carried out in the
following way:
"I intend to commence with the goodness-of God in giving iron
ore, by giving, if I can, a general knowledge of the
simplicity of the substance, and endeavoring to disabuse
their minds of the idea which prevents them, in general, from
reaping the benefit of that mineral which abounds in their
country. I intend, also, to pay more attention to the
children of the few believers we have with us as a class, for
whom, as baptized ones, we are bound especially to care. May
the Lord enable me to fulfill my resolutions! I have now the
happy prospect before me of real missionary work. All that
has preceded has been preparatory."
All this time Livingstone had been cherishing his plan of a training
seminary for native agents. He had written a paper and brought the
matter before the missionaries, but without success. Some opposed the
scheme fairly, as being premature, while some insinuated that his object
was to stand well with the Directors, and get himself made Professor.
This last objection induced him to withdraw his proposal. He saw that in
his mode of prosecuting the matter he had not been very knowing; it
would have been better to get some of the older brethren to adopt it. He
feared that his zeal had injured the cause he desired to benefit, and in
writing to his friend Watt, he said that for months he felt bitter
grief, and could never think of the subject without a pang[23].
[Footnote 23: Dr. Moffat favored the scheme of a training seminary, and
when he came home afterward, helped to raise a large sum of money for
the purpose. He was strongly of opinion that the institution should be
built at Sechéle's; but, contrary to his view, and that of Livingstone,
it has been placed at Kuruman.]
A second time he brought forward his proposal, but again without
success. Was he then to be beaten? Far from it. He would change his
tactics, however. He would first set himself to show what could be done
by native efforts; he would travel about, wherever he found a road, and
after inquiries, settle native agents far and wide. The plan had only to
be tried, under God's blessing, to succeed. Here again we trace the
Providence that shaped his career. Had his wishes been carried into
effect, he might have spent his life training native agents, and doing
undoubtedly a noble work: but he would not have traversed Africa; he
would not have given its death-blow to African slavery; he would not
have closed the open sore of the world, nor rolled away the great
obstacle to the evangelization of the Continent.
Some glimpses of his Mabotsa life may be got from a letter to his mother
(14th May, 1845). Usually his letters for home were meant for the whole
family and addressed accordingly; but with a delicacy of feeling, which
many will appreciate, he wrote separately to his mother after a little
experience of married life:
"I often think of you, and perhaps more frequently since I
got married than before. Only yesterday I said to my wife,
when I thought of the nice clean bed I enjoy now, 'You put me
in mind of my mother; she was always particular about our
beds and linen. I had had rough times of it before.'...
"I cannot perceive that the attentions paid to my
father-in-law at home have spoiled him. He is, of course, not
the same man he formerly must have been, for he now knows the
standing he has among the friends of Christ at home. But the
plaudits he received have had a bad effect, and tho' not on
_his_ mind, yet on that of his fellow-laborers. You, perhaps,
cannot understand this, but so it is. If one man is praised,
others think this is more than is deserved, and that they,
too ('others,' they say, while they mean themselves), ought
to have a share. Perhaps you were gratified to see my letters
quoted in the _Chronicle_. In some minds they produced bitter
envy, and if it were in my power, I should prevent the
publication of any in future. But all is in the Lord's hands;
on Him I cast my care. His testimony I receive as it
stands--He careth for us. Yes, He does; for He says it, who
is every way worthy of credit. He will give what is good for
me. He will see to it that all things work together for good.
Do thou for me, O Lord God Almighty! May his blessing rest on
you, my dear mother....
"I received the box from Mr. D. The clothes are all too wide
by four inches at least. Does he think that aldermen grow in
Africa? Mr. N., too, fell into the same fault, but he will be
pleased to know his boots will be worn by a much better
man--Mr. Moffat. I am not an atom thicker than when you
saw me....
"Respecting the mission here, we can say nothing. The people
have not the smallest love to the gospel of Jesus. They hate
and fear it, as a revolutionary spirit is disliked by the old
Tories. It appears to them as that which, if not carefully
guarded against, will seduce them, and destroy their
much-loved domestic institutions. No pro-slavery man in the
Southern States dreads more the abolition principles than do
the Bakhatla the innovations of the Word of God. Nothing but
power Divine can work the mighty change."
Unhappily Mr. and Mrs. Livingstone's residence at Mabotsa was embittered
by a painful collision with the missionary who had taken part in rearing
the station. Livingstone was accused of acting unfairly by him, of
assuming to himself more than his due, and attempts were made to
discredit him, both among the missionaries and the Directors. It was a
very painful ordeal, and Livingstone felt it keenly. He held the
accusation to be unjust, as most people will hold it to have been who
know that one of the charges against him was that he was a
"non-entity"! A tone of indignation pervades his letters:--that after
having borne the heat and burden of the day, he should be accused of
claiming for himself the credit due to one who had done so little in
comparison. But the noble spirit of Livingstone rose to the occasion.
Rather than have any scandal before the heathen, he would give up his
house and garden at Mabotsa, with all the toil and money they had cost
him, go with his young bride to some other place, and begin anew the
toil of house and school building, and gathering the people around him.
His colleague was so struck with his generosity that he said had he
known his intention he never would have spoken a word against him.
Livingstone had spent all his money, and out of a salary of a hundred
pounds it was not easy to build a house every other year. But he stuck
to his resolution. Parting with his garden evidently cost him a pang,
especially when he thought of the tasteless hands into which it was to
fall. "I like a garden," he wrote, "but paradise will make amends for
all our privations and sorrows here." Self-denial was a firmly
established habit with him; and the passion of "moving on" was warm in
his blood. Mabotsa did not thrive after Livingstone left it, but the
brother with whom he had the difference lived to manifest a very
different spirit.
In some of his journeys, Livingstone had come into close contact with
the tribe of the Bakwains, which, on the murder of their chief, some
time before, had been divided into two, one part under Bubi, already
referred to, and the other under Sechéle, son of the murdered chief,
also already introduced. Both of these chiefs had shown much regard for
Livingstone, and on the death of Bubi, Sechéle and his people indicated
a strong wish that a missionary should reside among them. On leaving
Mabotsa, Livingstone transferred his services to this tribe. The name of
the pew station was Chonuane; it was situated some forty miles from
Mabotsa, and in 1846 it became the centre of Livingstone's operations
among the Bakwains and their chief Sechéle.
Livingstone had been disappointed with the result of his work among the
Bakhatlas. No doubt much good had been done; he had prevented several
wars; but where were the conversions[24]? On leaving he found that he
had made more impressions on them than he had supposed. They were most
unwilling to lose him, offered to do anything in their power for his
comfort, and even when his oxen were "inspanned" and he was on the point
of moving, they offered to build a new house without expense to him in
some other place, if only he would not leave them. In a financial point
of view, the removal to Chonuane was a serious undertaking. He had to
apply to the Directors at home for a building-grant--only thirty pounds,
but there were not wanting objectors even to that small sum. It was only
in self-vindication that he was constrained to tell of the hardships
which his family had borne;--
[Footnote 24: When some of Livingstone's "new light" friends heard that
there were so few conversions, they seem to have thought that he was too
much of an old Calvinist, and wrote to him to preach that the remedy was
as extensive as the disease--Christ loved _you_, and gave himself for
_you_. "You may think me heretical," replied he, "but we don't need to
make the extent of the atonement the main topic of our preaching. We
preach to men who don't know but they are beasts, who have no idea of
God as a personal agent, or of sin as evil, otherwise than as an offense
against each other, which may or may not be punished by the party
offended.... Their consciences are seared, and moral perceptions
blunted. Their memories retain scarcely anything we teach them, and so
low have they sunk that the plainest text in the whole Bible cannot be
understood by them."]
"We endured for a long while, using a wretched infusion of
native corn for coffee, but when our corn was done, we were
fairly obliged to go to Kuruman for supplies. I can bear what
other Europeans would consider hunger and thirst without any
inconvenience, but when we arrived, to hear the old woman who
had seen my wife depart about two years before, exclaiming
before the door, 'Bless me! how lean she is! Has he starved
her? Is there no food in the country to which she has been?'
was more than I could well bear."
From the first, Sechéle showed an intelligent interest in Livingstone's
preaching. He became a great reader especially of the Bible, and
lamented very bitterly that he had got involved in heathen customs, and
now did not know what to do with his wives. At one time he expressed
himself quite willing to convert all his people to Christianity by the
litupa, _i.e._ whips of rhinoceros hide; but when he came to understand
better, he lamented that while he could make his people do anything else
he liked, he could not get one of them to believe. He began family
worship, and Livingstone was surprised to hear how well he conducted
prayer in his own simple and beautiful style. When he was baptized,
after a profession of three years, he sent away his superfluous wives in
a kindly and generous way; but all their connections became active and
bitter enemies of the gospel, and the conversion of Sechéle, instead of
increasing the congregation, reduced it so much that sometimes the chief
and his family were almost the only persons present. A bell-man of a
somewhat peculiar order was once employed to collect the people for
service--a tall gaunt fellow. "Up he jumped on a sort of platform, and
shouted at the top of his voice, 'Knock that woman down over there.
Strike her, she is putting on her pot! Do you see that one hiding
herself? Give her a good blow. There she is--see, see, knock her down!'
All the women ran to the place of meeting in no time, for each thought
herself meant. But, though a most efficient bell-man, we did not like to
employ him."
While residing at Chonuane, Livingstone performed two journeys eastward,
in order to attempt the removal of certain obstacles to the
establishment of at least one of his native teachers in that direction.
This brought him into connection with the Dutch Boers of the Cashan
mountains, otherwise called Magaliesberg. The Boers were emigrants from
the Cape, who had been dissatisfied with the British rule, and
especially with the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, and had
created for themselves a republic in the north (the Transvaal), in order
that they might pursue, unmolested, the proper treatment of the blacks.
"It is almost needless to add," says Livingstone, "that proper treatment
has always contained in it the essential element of slavery, viz.,
compulsory unpaid labor." The Boers had effected the expulsion of
Mosilikatse, a savage Zulu warrior, and in return for this service they
considered themselves sole masters of the soil. While still engaged in
the erection of his dwelling-house at Chonuane, Livingstone received
notes from the Commandant and Council of the emigrants, requesting an
explanation of his intentions, and an intimation that they had resolved
to come and deprive Sechéle of his fire-arms. About the same time he
received several very friendly messages and presents from Mokhatla,
chief of a large section of the Bakhatla, who lived about four days
eastward of his station, and had once, while Livingstone was absent,
paid a visit to Chonuane, and expressed satisfaction with the idea of
obtaining Paul, a native convert, as his teacher. As soon as his house
was habitable, Livingstone proceeded to the eastward, to visit Mokhatla,
and to confer with the Boers.
On his way to Mokhatla he was surprised at the unusual density of the
population, giving him the opportunity of preaching the gospel at least
once every day. The chief, Mokhatla, whose people were quiet and
industrious, was eager to get a missionary, but said that an arrangement
must be made with the Dutch commandant. This involved some delay.
Livingstone then returned to Chonuane, finished the erection of a school
there, and setting systematic instruction fairly in operation under Paul
and his son, Isaac, again went eastward, accompanied this time by Mrs.
Livingstone and their infant son, Robert Moffat[25]--all the three being
in indifferent health. Mebalwe, the catechist, was also with them.
Taking a different route, they came on another Bakhatla tribe, whose
country abounded in metallic ores, and who, besides cultivating their
fields, span cotton, smelted iron, copper, and tin, made an alloy of tin
and copper, and manufactured ornaments. Livingstone had constantly an
eye to the industries and commercial capabilities of the countries he
passed through. Social reform was certainly much needed here; for the
chief, though not twenty years of age, had already forty-eight wives and
twenty children. They heard of another tribe, said to excel all others
in manufacturing skill, and having the honorable distinction, "they had
never been known to kill any one." This lily among thorns they were
unable to visit. Three tribes of Bakhalaka whom they did visit were at
continual war.
[Footnote 25: He wrote to his father that he would have called him Neil,
if it had not been such an ugly name, and all the people would have
called him Ra-Neeley!]
Deriving his information from the Boers themselves, Livingstone learned
that they had taken possession of nearly all the fountains, so that the
natives lived in the country only by sufferance. The chiefs were
compelled to furnish the emigrants with as much free labor as they
required. This was in return for the privilege of living in the country
of the Boers! The absence of law left the natives open to innumerable
wrongs which the better-disposed of the emigrants lamented, but could
not prevent. Livingstone found that the forcible seizure of cattle was a
common occurrence, but another custom was even worse. When at war, the
Dutch forced natives to assist them, and sent them before them into
battle, to encounter the battle-axes of their opponents, while the Dutch
fired in safety at their enemies over the heads of their native allies.
Of course all the disasters of the war fell on the natives; the Dutch
had only the glory and the spoil. Such treatment of the natives burned
into the very soul of Livingstone. He was specially distressed at the
purpose expressed to pick a quarrel with Sechéle, for whatever the
emigrants might say of other tribes, they could not but admit that the
Bechuanas had been always an honest and peaceable people.
When Livingstone met the Dutch commandant he received favorably his
proposal of a native missionary, but another obstacle arose. Near the
proposed station lived a Dutch emigrant who had shown himself the
inveterate enemy of missions. He had not scrupled to say that the proper
way to treat any native missionary was to kill him. Livingstone was
unwilling to plant Mebalwe beside so bloodthirsty a
neighbor**(spelling?), and as he had not time to, go to him, and try to
bring him to a better mind, and there was plenty of work to be done at
the station, they all returned to Chonuane.
"We have now," says Livingstone (March, 1847), "been a little more than
a year with the Bakwains. No conversions have taken place, but real
progress has been made." He adverts to the way in which the Sabbath was
observed, no work being done by the natives in the gardens that day, and
hunting being suspended. Their superstitious belief in rain-maiking had
got a blow. There was a real desire for knowledge, though hindered by
the prevailing famine caused by the want of rain. There was also a
general impression among the people that the missionaries were their
friends. But civilization apart from conversion would be but a poor
recompense for their labor.
But, whatever success might attend their work among the Bakwains,
Livingstone's soul was soaring beyond them:
"I am more and more convinced," he writes to the Directors,
"that in order to the permanent settlement of the gospel in
any part, the natives must be taught to relinquish their
reliance on Europe. An onward movement ought to be made
whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. I tell my
Bakwains that if spared ten years, I shall move on to regions
beyond them. If our missions would move onward now to those
regions I have lately visited, they would in all probability
prevent the natives settling into that state of determined
hatred to all Europeans which I fear now characterizes most
of the Caffres near the Colony. If natives are not elevated
by contact with Europeans, they are sure to be deteriorated.
It is with pain I have observed that all the tribes I have
lately seen are undergoing the latter process. The country
is fine. It abounds in streams, and has many considerable
rivers. The Boers hate missionaries, but by a kind and
prudent course of conduct one can easily manage them.
Medicines are eagerly received, and I intend to procure a
supply of Dutch tracts for distribution among them. The
natives who have been in subjection to Mosilikatse place
unbounded confidence in missionaries."
In his letters to friends at home, whatever topic Livingstone may touch,
we see evidence of one over-mastering idea--the vastness of Africa, and
the duty of beginning a new area of enterprise to reach its people.
Among his friends the Scotch Congregationalists, there had been a keen
controversy on some points of Calvinism. Livingstone did not like it; he
was not a high Calvinist theoretically, yet he could not accept the new
views, "from a secret feeling of being absolutely at the divine disposal
as a sinner;" but these were theoretical questions, and with dark Africa
around him, he did not see why the brethren at home should split on
them. Missionary influence in South Africa was directed in a wrong
channel. There were three times too many missionaries in the colony, and
vast regions beyond lay untouched. He wrote to Mr. Watt: "If you meet me
down in the colony before eight years are expired, you may shoot me."
Of his employments and studies he gives the following account: "I get
the _Evangelical, Scottish Congregational, Eclectic, Lancet, British and
Foreign Medical Review_. I can read in journeying, but little at home.
Building, gardening, cobbling, doctoring, tinkering, carpentering,
gun-mending, farriering, wagon-mending, preaching, schooling, lecturing
on physics according to my means, beside a chair in divinity to a class
of three, fill up my time."
With all his other work, he was still enthusiastic in science. "I have
written Professor Buckland," he says to Mr. Watt (May, 1845), "and send
him specimens too, but have not received any answer. I have a great lot
by me now. I don't know whether he received my letter or not. Could you
ascertain? I am trying to procure specimens of the entire geology of
this region, and will try and make a sort of chart. I am taking double
specimens now, so that if one part is lost, I can send another. The
great difficulty is transmission. I sent a dissertation on the decrease
of water in Africa. Call on Professor Owen and ask if he wants anything
in the four jars I still possess, of either rhinoceros, camelopard,
etc., etc. If he wants these, or anything else these jars will hold, he
must send me more jars and spirits of wine."
He afterward heard of the fate of one of the boxes of specimens he had
sent home--that which contained the fossils of Bootchap. It was lost on
the railway after reaching England, in custody of a friend. "The thief
thought the box contained bullion, no doubt. You may think of one of the
faces in _Punch_ as that of the scoundrel, when he found in the box a
lot of 'chuckystanes.'" He had got many nocturnal-feeding, animals, but
the heat made it very difficult to preserve them. Many valuable seeds he
had sent to Calcutta, with the nuts of the desert, but had heard nothing
of them. He had lately got knowledge of a root to which the same virtues
were attached as to ergot of rye. He tells his friend about the tsetse,
the fever, the north wind, and other African notabilia. These and many
other interesting points of information are followed up by the
significant question--
"Who will penetrate through Africa?"
CHAPTER V.
Third Station--Kolobeng.
A.D. 1847-1852.
Want of rain at Chonuane--Removal to Kolobeng--House-building and public
works--Hopeful prospects--Letters to Mr. Watt, his sister, and Dr.
Bennett--The church at Kolobeng--Pure communion--Conversion of
Sechéle--Letter from his brother Charles--His history--Livingstone's
relations with the Boers--He cannot get native teachers planted in the
East--Resolves to explore northwards--Extracts from Journal--Scarcity of
water--Wild animals and other risks--Custom-house robberies and
annoyances--Visit from Secretary of London Missionary Society--Manifold
employments of Livingstone--Studies in Sichuana--His reflection on this
period of his life while detained at Manyuema in 1870.
The residence of the Livingstones at Chonuane was of short continuance.
The want of rain was fatal to agriculture, and about equally fatal to
the mission. It was necessary to remove to a neighborhood where water
could be obtained. The new locality chosen was on the banks of the river
Kolobeng, about forty miles distant from Chonuane. In a letter to the
Royal Geographical Society, his early and warm friend and
fellow-traveler, Mr. Oswell, thus describes Kolobeng: "The town stands
in naked 'deformity on the side of and under a ridge of red ironstone;
the mission-house on a little rocky eminence over the river Kolobeng."
Livingstone had pointed out to the chief that the only feasible way of
watering the gardens was to select some good never-failing river, make a
canal, and irrigate the adjacent lands. The wonderful influence which he
had acquired was apparent from the fact that the very morning after he
told them of his intention to move to the Kolobeng, the whole tribe was
in motion for the "flitting." Livingstone had to set to work at his old
business--building a house--the third which he had reared with his own
hands. It was a mere hut--for a permanent house he had to wait a year.
The natives, of course, had their huts to rear and their gardens to
prepare; but, besides this, Livingstone set them to public works. For
irrigating their gardens, a dam had to be dug and a water-course scooped
out; sixty-five of the younger men dug the dam, and forty of the older
made the water-course. The erection of the school was undertaken by the
chief Sechéle: "I desire," he said, "to build a house for God, the
defender of my town, and that you be at no expense for it whatever." Two
hundred of his people were employed in this work.
Livingstone had hardly had time to forget his building troubles at
Mabotsa and Chonuane, when he began this new enterprise. But he was in
much better spirits, much more hopeful than he had been. Writing to Mr.
Watt on 13th February, 1848, he says:--
"All our meetings are good compared to those we had at
Mabotsa, and some of them admit of no comparison whatever.
Ever since we moved, we have been incessantly engaged in
manual labor. We have endeavored, as far as possible, to
carry on systematic instruction at the same time, but have
felt it very hard pressure on our energies.... Our daily
labors are in the following sort of order:
"We get up as soon as we can, generally with the sun in
summer, then have family worship, breakfast, and school; and
as soon as these are over we begin the manual operations
needed, sowing, ploughing, smithy work, and every other sort
of work by turns as required. My better-half is employed all
the morning in culinary or other work; and feeling pretty
well tired by dinner-time, we take about two hours' rest
then; but more frequently, without the respite I try to
secure for myself, she goes off to hold infant-school, and
this, I am happy to say, is very popular with the youngsters.
She sometimes has eighty, but the average may be sixty. My
manual labors are continued till about five o'clock. I then
go into the town to give lessons and talk to any one who may
be disposed for it. As soon as the cows are milked we have a
meeting, and this is followed by a prayer-meeting in Sechéles
house, which brings me home about half-past eight, and
generally tired enough, too fatigued to think of any mental
exertion. I do not enumerate these duties by way of telling
how much we do, but to let you know a cause of sorrow I have
that so little of my time is devoted to real missionary
work."
First there was a temporary house to be built, then a permanent one,
and Livingstone was not exempted from the casualties of mechanics. Once
he found himself dangling from a beam by his weak arm. Another time he
had a fall from the roof. A third time he cut himself severely with an
axe. Working on the roof in the sun, his lips got all scabbed and
broken. If he mentions such things to Dr. Bennett or other friend, it is
either in the way of illustrating some medical point or to explain how
he had never found time to take the latitude of his station till he was
stopped working by one of these accidents. At best it was weary work.
"Two days ago," he writes to his sister Janet (5th July, 1848), "we
entered our new house. What a mercy to be in a house again! A year in a
little hut through which the wind blew our candles into glorious icicles
(as a poet would say) by night, and in which crowds of flies continually
settled on the eyes of our poor little brats by day, makes us value our
present castle. Oh, Janet, know thou, if thou art given to building
castles in the air, that that is easy work to erecting cottages on the
ground." He could not quite forget that it was unfair treatment that had
driven him from Mabotsa, and involved him in these labors. "I often
think," he writes to Dr. Bennett, "I have forgiven, as I hope to be
forgiven; but the remembrance of slander often comes boiling up,
although I hate to think of it. You must remember me in your prayers,
that more of the spirit of Christ may be imparted to me. All my plans of
mental culture have been broken through by manual labor. I shall soon,
however, be obliged to give my son and daughter a jog along the path to
learning.... Your family increases, very fast, and I fear we follow in
your wake. I cannot realize the idea of your sitting with four around
you, and I can scarcely believe myself to be so far advanced as to be
the father of two."
Livingstone never expected the work of real Christianity to advance
rapidly among the Bakwains. They were a slow people and took long to
move. But it was not his desire to have a large church of nominal
adherents. "Nothing," he writes, "will induce me to form an impure
church. Fifty added to the church sounds fine at home, but if only five
of these are genuine, what will it profit in the Great Day? I have felt
more than ever lately that the great object of our exertions ought to be
conversion." There was no subject on which Livingstone had stronger
feelings than on purity of communion. For two whole years he allowed no
dispensation of the Lord's Supper, because he did not deem the
professing Christians to be living consistently. Here was a crowning
proof of his hatred of all sham and false pretense, and his intense love
of solid, thorough, finished work.
Hardly were things begun to be settled at Kolobeng, when, by way of
relaxation, Livingstone (January, 1848) again moved eastward. He would
have gone sooner, but "a mad sort of Scotchman[26]," having wandered
past them shooting elephants, and lost all his cattle by the bite of the
tsetse-fly, Livingstone had to go to his help; and moreover the dam,
having burst, required to be repaired. Sechéle set out to accompany him,
and intended to go with him the whole way; but some friends having come
to visit his tribe, he had to return, or at least did return, leaving
Livingstone four gallons of porridge, and two servants to act in his
stead. "He is about the only individual," says Livingstone, "who
possesses distinct, consistent views on the subject of our mission. He
is bound by his wives: has a curious idea--would like to go to another
country for three or four years in order to study, with the hope that
probably his wives would have married others in the meantime. He would
then return, and be admitted to the Lord's Supper, and teach his people
the knowledge he has acquired, He seems incapable of putting them away.
He feels so attached to them, and indeed we, too, feel much attached to
most of them. They are our best scholars, our constant friends. We
earnestly pray that they, too, may be enlightened by the Spirit of God."
[Footnote 26: Mr. Gordon Cumming.]
The prayer regarding Sechéle was answered soon. Reviewing the year 1844
in a letter to the Directors, Livingstone says: "An event that excited
more open enmity than any other was the profession of faith and
subsequent reception of the chief into the church."
During the first years at Kolobeng he received a long letter from his
younger brother Charles, then in the United States, requesting him to
use his influence with the London Missionary Society that he might be
sent as a missionary to China. In writing to the Directors about his
brother, in reply to this request, Livingstone disclaimed all idea of
influencing them except in so far as he might be able to tell them
facts. His brother's history was very interesting. In 1839, when David
Livingstone was in England, Charles became earnest about religion,
influenced partly by the thought that as his brother, to whom he was
most warmly attached, was going abroad, he might never see him again in
this world, and therefore he would prepare to meet him in the next. A
strong desire sprang up in his mind to obtain a liberal education. Not
having the means to get this at home, he was advised by David to go to
America, and endeavor to obtain admission to one of the colleges there
where the students support themselves by manual labor. To help him in
this, David sent him five pounds, which he had just received from the
Society, being the whole of his quarter's allowance in London. On
landing at New York, after selling his box and bed, Charles found his
whole stock of cash to amount to £2, 13s. 6d. Purchasing a loaf and a
piece of cheese as _viaticum_, he started for a college at Oberlin,
seven hundred miles off, where Dr. Finney was President. He contrived to
get to the college without having ever begged. In the third year he
entered on a theological course, with the view of becoming a missionary.
He did not wish, and could never agree, as a missionary, to hold an
appointment from an American Society, on account of the relation of the
American Churches to slavery; therefore he applied to the London
Missionary Society. David had suggested to his father that if Charles
was to be a missionary, he ought to direct his attention to China.
Livingstone's first missionary love had not become cold, and much though
he might have wished to have his brother in Africa, he acted
consistently on his old conviction that there were enough of English
missionaries there, and that China had much more need.
The Directors declined to appoint Charles Livingstone without a personal
visit, which he could not afford to make. This circumstance led him to
accept a pastorate in New England, where he remained until 1857, when he
came to this country and joined his brother in the Zambesi Expedition.
Afterward he was appointed H. M. Consul at Fernando Po, but being always
delicate, he succumbed to the climate of the country, and died a few
months after his brother, on his way home, in October, 1873. Sir Bartle
Frere, as President of the Royal Geographical Society, paid a deserved
tribute to his affectionate and earnest nature, his consistent Christian
life, and his valuable help to Christian missions and the African cause
generally[27].
[Footnote 27: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1874, p.
cxxviii.]
Livingstone's relations with the Boers did not improve. He has gone so
fully into this subject in his _Missionary Travels_ that a very slight
reference to it is all that is needed here. It was at first very
difficult for him to comprehend how the most flagrant injustice and
inhumanity to the black race could be combined, as he found it to be,
with kindness and general respectability, and even with the profession
of piety. He only came to comprehend this when, after more experience,
he understood the demoralization which the slave-system produces. It was
necessary for the Boers to possess themselves of children for servants,
and believing or fancying that in some tribe an insurrection was
plotting, they would fall on that tribe and bring off a number of the
children. The most foul massacres were justified on the ground that they
were necessary to subdue the troublesome tendencies of the people, and
therefore essential to permanent peace. Livingstone felt keenly that the
Boers who came to live among the Bakwains made no distinction between
them and the Caffres, although the Bechuanas were noted for honesty, and
never attacked either Boers or English. On the principle of elevating
vague rumors into alarming facts, the Boers of the Cashan Mountains,
having heard that Sechéle was possessed of fire-arms (the number of his
muskets was five!) multiplied the number by a hundred, and threatened
him with an invasion. Livingstone, who was accused of supplying these
arms, went to the commandant Krieger, and prevailed upon him to defer
the expedition, but refused point-blank to comply with Krieger's wish
that he should act as a spy on the Bakwains. Threatening messages
continued to be sent to Sechéle, ordering him to surrender himself, and
to prevent English traders from passing through his country, or selling
fire-arms to his people. On one occasion Livingstone was told by Mr.
Potgeiter, a leading Dutchman, that he would attack any tribe that might
receive a native teacher. Livingstone was so thoroughly identified with
the natives that it became the desire of the colonists to get rid of him
and all his belongings, and complaints were made of him to the Colonial
Government as a dangerous person that ought not to be let alone.
All this made it very clear to Livingstone that his favorite plan of
planting native teachers to the eastward could not be carried into
effect, at least for the present. His disappointment in this was only
another link in the chain of causes that gave to the latter part of his
life so unlooked-for but glorious a destination. It set him to inquire
whether in some other direction he might not find a sphere for planting
native teachers which the jealousy of the Boers prevented in the east.
Before we set out with him on the northward journeys, to which he was
led partly by the hostility of the Boers in the east, and partly by the
very distressing failure of rain at Kolobeng, a few extracts may be
given from a record of the period entitled "A portion of a Journal lost
in the destruction of Kolobeng (September, 1853) by the Boers of
Pretorius." Livingstone appears to have kept journals from an early
period of his life with characteristic care and neatness; but that
ruthless and most atrocious raid of the Boers, which we shall have to
notice hereafter, deprived him of all them up to that date. The
treatment of his books on that occasion was one of the most exasperating
of his trials. Had they been burned or carried off he would have minded
it less; but it was unspeakably provoking to hear of them lying about
with handfuls of leaves torn out of them, or otherwise mutilated and
destroyed. From the wreck of his journals the only part saved was a few
pages containing notes of some occurrences in 1848-49:
"_May_ 20, 1848.--Spoke to Sechéle of the evil of trusting in
medicines instead of God. He felt afraid to dispute on the
subject, and said he would give up all medicine if I only
told him to do so. I was gratified to see symptoms of tender
conscience. May God enlighten him!
"_July 10th_.--Entered new house on 4th curt. A great mercy.
Hope it may be more a house of prayer than any we have yet
inhabited.
"_Sunday, August_ 6.--Sechéle remained as a spectator at the
celebration of the Lord's Supper, and when we retired he
asked me how he ought to act with reference to his
superfluous wives, as he greatly desired to conform to the
will of Christ, be baptized, and observe his ordinances.
Advised him to do according to what he saw written in God's
Book, but to treat them gently, for they had sinned in
ignorance, and if driven away hastily might be lost
eternally.
"_Sept_. 1.--Much opposition, but none manifested to us as
individuals. Some, however, say it was a pity the lion did
not kill me at Mabotsa. They curse the chief (Sechéle) with
very bitter curses, and these come from the mouths of those
whom Sechéle would formerly have destroyed for a single
disrespectful word. The truth will, by the aid of the Spirit
of God, ultimately prevail.
"_Oct_. 1.--Sechéle baptized; also Setefano.
"_Nov_.--Long for rains. Everything languishes during the
intense heat; and successive droughts having only occurred
since the Gospel came to the Bakwains, I fear the effect will
be detrimental. There is abundance of rain all around us. And
yet we, who have our chief at our head in attachment to the
Gospel, receive not a drop. Has Satan power over the course
of the winds and clouds? Feel afraid he will obtain an
advantage over us, but must be resigned entirely to the
Divine will.
"_Nov_. 27.--O Devil! Prince of the power of the air, art
thou hindering us? Greater is He who is for us than all who
can be against us. I intend to proceed with Paul to
Mokhatla's. He feels much pleased with the prospect of
forming a new station. May God Almighty bless the poor
unworthy effort! Mebalwe's house finished. Preparing woodwork
for Paul's house.
"_Dec._ 16.--Passed by invitation to Hendrick Potgeiter.
Opposed to building a school.... Told him if he hindered the
Gospel the blood of these people would be required at his
hand. He became much excited at this.
"_Dec._ 17.--Met Dr. Robertson, of Swellendam. Very friendly.
Boers very violently opposed.... Went to Pilanies. Had large
attentive audiences at two villages when on the way home.
Paul and I looked for a ford in a dry river. Found we had got
a she black rhinoceros between us and the wagon, which was
only twenty yards off. She had calved during the night--a
little red beast like a dog. She charged the wagon, split a
spoke and a felloe with her horn, and then left. Paul and I
jumped into a rut, as the guns were in the wagon."
The black rhinoceros is one of the most dangerous of the wild beasts of
Africa, and travelers stand in great awe of it. The courage of Dr.
Livingstone in exposing himself to the risk of such animals on this
missionary tour was none the less that he himself says not a word
regarding it; but such courage was constantly shown by him. The
following instances are given on the authority of Dr. Moffat as samples
of what was habitual to Dr. Livingstone in the performance of his duty.
In going through a wood, a party of hunters were startled by the
appearance of a black rhinoceros. The furious beast dashed at the wagon,
and drove his horn into the bowels of the driver, inflicting a frightful
wound. A messenger was despatched in the greatest haste for Dr.
Livingstone, whose house was eight or ten miles distant. The messenger
in his eagerness ran the whole way. Livingstone's friends were
horror-struck at the idea of his riding through the wood at night,
exposed to the rhinoceros and other deadly beasts. "No, no; you must not
think of it, Livingstone; it is certain death." Livingstone believed it
was a Christian duty to try to save the poor fellow's life, and he
resolved to go, happen what might. Mounting his horse, he rode to the
scene of the accident. The man had died, and the wagon had left, so that
there was nothing for Livingstone but to return and run the risk of the
forest anew, without even the hope that he might be useful in
saving life.
Another time, when he and a brother missionary were on a tour a long way
from home, a messenger came to tell his companion that one of his
children was alarmingly ill. It was but natural for him to desire
Livingstone to go back with him. The way lay over a road infested by
lions. Livingstone's life would be in danger; moreover, as we have seen,
he was intensely desirous to examine the fossil bones at the place. But
when his friend expressed the desire for him to go, he went without
hesitation. His firm belief in Providence sustained him in these as in
so many other dangers.
Medical practice was certainly not made easier by what happened to some
of his packages from England. Writing to his father-in-law, Mr. Moffat
(18th January, 1849), he says:
"Most of our boxes which come to us from England are opened,
and usually lightened of their contents. You will perhaps
remember one in which Sechéle's cloak was. It contained, on
leaving Glasgow, besides the articles which came here, a
parcel of surgical instruments which I ordered, and of course
paid for. One of these was a valuable cupping apparatus. The
value at which the instruments were purchased for me was £4,
12s., their real value much more.
"The box which you kindly packed for us and despatched to
Glasgow has, we hear, been gutted by the Custom-House
thieves, and only a very few plain karosses left in it. When
we see a box which has been opened we have not half the
pleasure which we otherwise should in unpacking it.... Can
you give me any information how these annoyances may be
prevented? Or must we submit to it as one of the crooked
things of this life, which Solomon says cannot be made
straight?"
Not only in these scenes of active missionary labor, but everywhere
else, Livingstone was in the habit of preaching to the natives, and
conversing seriously with them on religion, his favorite topics being
the love of Christ, the Fatherhood of God, the resurrection, and the
last judgment. His preaching to them, in Dr. Moffat's judgment, was
highly effective. It was simple, scriptural, conversational, went
straight to the point, was well fitted to arrest the attention, and
remarkably adapted to the capacity of the people. To his father he
writes (5th July, 1848): "For a long time I felt much depressed after
preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to apparently insensible
hearts; but now I like to dwell on the love of the great Mediator, for
it always warms my own heart, and I know that the gospel is the power of
God--the great means which He employs for the regeneration of our
ruined world."
In the beginning of 1849 Livingstone made the first of a series of
journeys to the north, in the hope of planting native missionaries among
the people. Not to interrupt the continuous account of these journeys,
we may advert here to a visit paid to him at Kolobeng, on his return
from the first of them, in the end of the year, by Mr. Freeman of the
London Missionary Society, who was at that time visiting the African
stations. Mr. Freeman, to Livingstone's regret, was in favor of keeping
up all Colonial stations, because the London Society alone paid
attention to the black population. He was not much in sympathy with
Livingstone.
"Mr. Freeman," he writes confidentially to Mr. Watt, "gave us
no hope to expect any new field to be taken up. 'Expenditure
to be reduced in Africa' was the word, when I proposed the
new region beyond us, and there is nobody willing to go
except Mr. Moffat and myself. Six hundred miles additional
land-carriage, mosquitoes in myriads, sparrows by the
million, an epidemic frequently fatal, don't look well in a
picture. I am 270 miles from Kuruman; land-carriage for all
that we use makes a fearful inroad into the £100 of salary,
and then 600 miles beyond this makes one think unutterable
things, for nobody likes to call for more salary. I think the
Indian salary ought to be given to those who go into the
tropics. I have a very strong desire to go and reduce the new
language to writing, but I cannot perform impossibilities. I
don't think it quite fair for the Churches to expect their
messenger to live, as if he were the Prodigal Son, on the
husks that the swine do eat, but I should be ashamed to say
so to any one but yourself."
"I cannot perform impossibilities," said Livingstone; but few men could
come so near doing it. His activity of mind and body at this outskirt of
civilization was wonderful. A Jack-of-all-trades, he is building houses
and schools, cultivating gardens, scheming in every manner of way how to
get water, which in the remarkable drought of the season becomes scarcer
and scarcer; as a missionary he is holding meetings every other night,
preaching on Sundays, and taking such other opportunities as he can find
to gain the people to Christ; as a medical man he is dealing with the
more difficult cases of disease, those which baffle the native doctors;
as a man of science he is taking observations, collecting specimens,
thinking out geographical, geological, meteorological, and other
problems bearing on the structure and condition of the continent; as a
missionary statesman he is planning how the actual force might be
disposed of to most advantage, and is looking round in this direction
and in that, over hundreds of miles, for openings for native agents; and
to promote these objects he is writing long letters to the Directors, to
the _Missionary Chronicle_ to the _British Banner_, to private friends,
to any one likely to take an interest in his plans.
But this does not exhaust his labors. He is deeply interested in
philological studies, and is writing on the Sichuana language:
"I have been hatching a grammar of the Sichuana language," he
writes to Mr. Watt. "It is different in structure from any
other language, except the ancient Egyptian. Most of the
changes are effected by means of prefixes or affixes, the
radical remaining unchanged. Attempts have been made to form
grammars, but all have gone on the principle of establishing
a resemblance between Sichuana, Latin, and Greek; mine is on
the principle of analysing the language without reference to
any others. Grammatical terms are only used when I cannot
express my meaning in any other way. The analysis renders the
whole language very simple, and I believe the principle
elicited extends to most of the languages between this and
Egypt. I wish to know whether I could get 20 or 30 copies
printed for private distribution at an expense not beyond my
means. It would be a mere tract, and about the size of this
letter when folded, 40 or 50 pages perhaps[28]. Will you
ascertain the cost, and tell me whether, in the event of my
continuing hot on the subject half a year hence, you would be
the corrector of the press?... Will you examine catalogues to
find whether there is any dictionary of ancient Egyptian
within my means, so that I might purchase and compare? I
should not grudge two or three pounds for it. Professor Vater
has written on it, but I do not know what dictionary he
consulted. One Tattam has written a Coptic grammar; perhaps
that has a vocabulary, and might serve my purpose. I see
Tattam advertised by John Russell Smith, 4 Old Compton
Street, Soho, London,--'Tattam (H.), _Lexicon
Egyptiaco-Latinum e veteribus linguae Egyptiacae monumentis;
_ thick 8vo, bds., 10s., Oxf., 1835.' Will you purchase the
above for me?"
[Footnote 28: This gives a correct idea of the length of many of his
letters.]
At Mabotsa and Chonuane the Livingstones had spent but a little time;
Kolobeng may be said to have been the only permanent home they ever had.
During these years several of their children were born, and it was the
only considerable period of their lives when both had their children
about them. Looking back afterward on this period, and its manifold
occupations, whilst detained in Manyuema, in the year 1870, Dr.
Livingstone wrote the following striking words:
The heart that felt this one regret in looking back to this busy time
must have been true indeed to the instincts of a parent. But
Livingstone's case was no exception to that mysterious law of our life
in this world, by which, in so many things, we learn how to correct our
errors only after the opportunity is gone. Of all the crooks in his lot,
that which gave him so short an opportunity of securing the affections
and moulding the character of his children seems to have been the
hardest to bear. His long detention at Manyuema appears, as we shall see
hereafter, to have been spent by him in learning more completely the
lesson of submission to the will of God; and the hard trial of
separation from his family, entailing on them what seemed irreparable
loss, was among the last of his sorrows over which he was able to write
the words with which he closes the account of his wife's death in the
_Zambesi and its Tributaries_,--"FIAT, DOMINE, VOLUNTUS TUA!"
CHAPTER VI
KOLOBENG _continued_--LAKE 'NGAMI.
A.D. 1849-1852.
Kolobeng failing through drought--Sebituane's country and the Lake
'Ngami--Livingstone sets out with Messrs. Oswell and Murray--Rivers
Zouga and Tamanak'le--Old ideas of the interior
revolutionized--Enthusiasm of Livingstone--Discovers Lake
'Ngami--Obliged to return--Prize from Royal Geographical Society--Second
expedition to the lake, with wife and children--Children attacked by
fever--Again obliged to return--Conviction as to healthier spot
beyond--Idea of finding passage to sea either west or east--Birth and
death of a child--Family visits Kuruman--Third expedition, again with
family--He hopes to find a new locality--Perils of the journey--He
reaches Sebituane--The chiefs illness and death--Distress of
Livingstone--Mr. Oswell and he go on the Linyanti--Discovery of the
Upper Zambesi--No locality found for settlement--More extended journey
necessary--He returns--Birth of Oswald Livingstone--Crisis in
Livingstone's life--His guiding principles--New plans--The Makololo
begin to practice slave-trade--New thoughts about commerce--Letters to
Directors--The Bakwains--_Pros_ and _cons_ of his new plan--His unabated
missionary zeal--He goes with his family to the Cape--His
literary activity.
When Sechéle turned back after going so far with Livingstone eastward,
it appeared that his courage had failed him. "Will you go with me
northward?" Livingstone once asked him, and it turned out that he was
desirous to do so. He wished to see Sebituane, a great chief living to
the north of Lake 'Ngami, who had saved his life in his infancy, and
otherwise done him much service. Sebituane was a man of great ability,
who had brought a vast number of tribes into subjection, and now ruled
over a very extensive territory, being one of the greatest magnates of
Africa. Livingstone, too, had naturally a strong desire to become
acquainted with so influential a man. The fact of his living near the
lake revived the project that had slumbered for years in his mind--to be
the first of the missionaries who should look on its waters. At
Kolobeng, too, the settlement was in such straits, owing to the
excessive drought which dried up the very river, that the people would
be compelled to leave it and settle elsewhere. The want of water, and
consequently of food, in the gardens, obliged the men to be absent
collecting locusts, so that there was hardly any one to come either to
church or school. Even the observance of the Sabbath broke down. If
Kolobeng should have to be abandoned, where would Livingstone go next?
It was certainly worth his while to look if a suitable locality could
not be found in Sebituane's territory. He had resolved that he would not
stay with the Bakwains always. If the new region were not suitable for
himself, he might find openings for native teachers; at all events, he
would go northward and see. Just before he started, messengers came to
him from Lechulatebe, chief of the people of the lake, asking him to
visit his country, and giving such an account of the quantity of ivory
that the cupidity of the Bakwain guides was roused, and they became
quite eager to be there.
On 1st June, 1849, Livingstone accordingly set out from Kolobeng.
Sechéle was not of the party, but two English hunting friends
accompanied him, Mr. Oswell and Mr. Murray--Mr. Oswell generously
defraying the cost of the guides. Sekomi, a neighboring chief who
secretly wished the expedition to fail, lest his monopoly of the ivory
should be broken up, remonstrated with them for rushing on to certain
death--they must be killed by the sun and thirst, and if he did not stop
them, people would blame him for the issue. "No fear," said Livingstone,
"people will only blame our own stupidity."
The great Kalahari desert, of which Livingstone has given so full an
account, lay between them and the lake. They passed along its northeast
border, and had traversed about half of the distance, when one day it
seemed most unexpectedly that they had got to their journey's end. Mr.
Oswell was a little in advance, and having cleared an intervening thick
belt of trees, beheld in the soft light of the setting sun what seemed a
magnificent lake twenty miles in circumference; and at the sight threw
his hat in the air, and raised a shout which made the Bakwains think him
mad. He fancied it was 'Ngami, and, indeed, it was a wonderful
deception, caused by a large salt-pan gleaming in the light of the sun;
in fact, the old, but ever new phenomenon of the mirage. The real 'Ngami
was yet 300 miles farther on.
Livingstone has given ample details of his progress in the _Missionary
Travels_, dwelling especially on his joy when he reached the beautiful
river Zouga, whose waters flowed from 'Ngami. Providence frustrated an
attempt to rouse ill-feeling against him on the part of two men who had
been sent by Sekomi, apparently to help him, but who now went before him
and circulated a report that the object of the travelers was to plunder
all the tribes living on the river and the lake. Half-way up, the
principal man was attacked by fever, and died; the natives thought it a
judgment, and seeing through Sekomi's reason for wishing the expedition
not to succeed, they by and by became quite friendly, under
Livingstone's fair and kind treatment.
A matter of great significance in his future history occurred at the
junction of the rivers Tamanak'le and Zouga:
"I inquired," he says, "whence the Tamanak'le came. 'Oh! from
a country full of rivers,--so many, no one can tell their
number, and full of large trees.' This was the first
confirmation of statements I had heard from the Bakwains who
had been with Sebituane, that the country beyond was not the
'large sandy plateau' of the philosophers. The prospect of a
highway, capable of being traversed by boats to an entirely
unexplored and very populous region, grew from that time
forward stronger and stronger in my mind; so much so, that
when we actually came to the lake, this idea occupied such a
large portion of my mental vision, that the actual discovery
seemed of but little importance. I find I wrote, when the
emotions caused by the magnificent prospects of the new
country were first awakened in my breast, that they might
subject me to the charge of enthusiasm, a charge which I
deserved, as nothing good or great had ever been accomplished
in the world without it[29].'"
[Footnote 29: _Missionary Travels_, p. 65.]
Twelve days after, the travelers came to the northeast end of Lake
'Ngami, and it was on 1st August, 1849, that this fine sheet of water
was beheld for the first time by Europeans. It was of such magnitude
that they could not see the farther shore, and they could only guess its
size from the reports of the natives that it took three days to go
round it.
Lechulatebe, the chief who had sent him the invitation, was quite a
young man, and his reception by no means corresponded to what the
invitation implied. He had no idea of Livingstone going on to Sebituane,
who lived two hundred miles farther north, and perhaps supplying him
with fire-arms which would make him a more dangerous neighbor. He
therefore refused Livingstone guides to Sebituane, and sent men to
prevent him from crossing the river. Livingstone was not to be baulked,
and worked many hours in the river trying to make a raft out of some
rotten wood,--at the imminent risk of his life, as he afterward found,
for the Zouga abounds with alligators. The season was now far advanced,
and as Mr. Oswell volunteered to go down to the Cape and bring up a boat
next year, the expedition was abandoned for the time.
Returning home by the Zouga, they had better opportunity to mark the
extraordinary richness of the country, and the abundance and luxuriance
of its products, both animal and vegetable. Elephants existed in crowds,
and ivory was so abundant that a trader was purchasing it at the rate of
ten tusks for a musket worth fifteen shillings. Two years later, after
effect had been given to Livingstone's discovery, the price had risen
very greatly.
Writing to his friend Watt, he dwells with delight on the river Zouga:
"It is a glorious river; you never saw anything so grand. The
banks are extremely beautiful, lined with gigantic trees,
many quite new. One bore a fruit a foot in length and three
inches in diameter. Another measured seventy feet in
circumference. Apart from the branches it looked like a mass
of granite; and then the Bakoba in their canoes--did I not
enjoy sailing in them? Remember how long I have been in a
parched-up land, and answer. The Bakoba are a fine frank race
of men, and seem to understand the message better than any
people to whom I have spoken on Divine subjects for the first
time. What think you of a navigable highway into a large
section of the interior? yet that the Tamanak'le is.... Who
will go into that goodly land? Who? Is it not the Niger of
this part of Africa?... I greatly enjoyed sailing in their
canoes, rude enough things, hollowed out of the trunks of
single trees, and visiting the villages along the Zouga. I
felt but little when I looked on the lake; but the Zouga and
Tamanak'le awakened emotions not to be described. I hope to
go up the latter next year."
The discovery of the lake and the river was communicated to the Royal
Geographical Society in extracts from Livingstone's letters to the
London Missionary Society, and to his friend and former fellow-traveler,
Captain Steele. In 1849 the Society voted him a sum of twenty-five
guineas "for his successful journey, in company with Messrs. Oswell and
Murray, across the South African desert, for the discovery of an
interesting country, a fine river, and an extensive inland lake." In
addressing Dr. Tidman and Alderman Challis, who represented the London
Missionary Society, the President (the late Captain, afterward
Rear-Admiral, W. Smyth, R.N., who distinguished himself in early life by
his journey across the Andes to Lima, and thence to the Atlantic)
adverted to the value of the discoveries in themselves, and in the
influence they would have on the regions beyond. He spoke also of the
help which Livingstone had derived as an explorer from his influence as
a missionary. The journey he had performed successfully had hitherto
baffled the best-furnished travelers. In 1834, an expedition under Dr.
Andrew Smith, the largest and best-appointed that ever left Cape Town,
had gone as far as 23° south latitude; but that proved to be the utmost
distance they could reach, and they were compelled to return. Captain
Sir James E. Alexander, the only scientific traveler subsequently sent
out from England by the Geographical Society, in despair of the lake,
and of discovery by the oft-tried eastern route, explored the
neighborhood of the western coast instead[30]. The President frankly
ascribed Livingstone's success to the influence he had acquired as a
missionary among the natives, and Livingstone thoroughly believed this.
"The lake," he wrote to his friend Watt, "belongs to missionary
enterprise." "Only last year," he subsequently wrote to the Geographical
Society, "a party of engineers, in about thirty wagons, made many and
persevering efforts to cross the desert at different points, but though
inured to the climate, and stimulated by the prospect of gain from the
ivory they expected to procure, they were compelled, for want of water,
to give up the undertaking." The year after Livingstone's first visit,
Mr. Francis Galton tried, but failed, to reach the lake, though he was
so successful in other directions as to obtain the Society's gold
medal in 1852.
[Footnote 30: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xx. p.
xxviii.]
Livingstone was evidently gratified at the honor paid him, and the
reception of the twenty-five guineas from the Queen. But the gift had
also a comical side. It carried him back to the days of his Radical
youth, when he and his friends used to criticise pretty sharply the
destination of the nation's money. "The Royal Geographical Society," he
writes to his parents (4th December, 1850), "have awarded twenty-five
guineas for the discovery of the lake. It is from the Queen. You must
be very loyal, all of you. Next time she comes your way, shout till you
are hoarse. Oh, you Radicals, don't be thinking it came out of your
pockets! Long live Victoria[31]!"
[Footnote 31: In a more serious vein he wrote in a previous letter: "I
wonder you do not go to see the Queen. I was as disloyal as others when
in England, for though I might have seen her in London, I never went. Do
you ever pray for her?" This letter is dated 5th February, 1850, and
must have been written before he heard of the prize.]
Defeated in his endeavor to reach Sebituane in 1849, Livingstone, the
following season, put in practice his favorite maxim, "Try again." He
left Kolobeng in April, 1850, and this time he was accompanied by
Sechéle, Mebalwe, twenty Bakwains, Mrs. Livingstone, and their whole
troop of infantry, which now amounted to three. Traveling in the
charming climate of South Africa in the roomy wagon, at the pace of two
miles and a half an hour, is not like traveling at home; but it was a
proof of Livingstone's great unwillingness to be separated from his
family, that he took them with him, notwithstanding the risk of
mosquitoes, fever, and want of water. The people of Kolobeng were so
engrossed at the time with their employments, that till harvest was
over, little missionary work could be done.
The journey was difficult, and on the northern branch of the Zouga many
trees had to be cut down to allow the wagons to pass. The presence of a
formidable enemy was reported on the banks of the Tamanak'le,--the
tsetse-fly, whose bite is so fatal to oxen. To avoid it, another route
had to be chosen. When they got near the lake, it was found that fever
had recently attacked a party of Englishmen, one of whom had died, while
the rest recovered under the care of Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone.
Livingstone took his family to have a peep at the lake; "the children,"
he wrote, "took to playing in it as ducklings do. Paidling in it was
great fun." Great fun to them, who had seen little enough water for a
while; and in a quiet way, great fun to their father too,--his own
children "paidling" in his own lake! He was beginning to find that in a
missionary point of view, the presence of his wife and children was a
considerable advantage; it inspired the natives with confidence, and
promoted tender feelings and kind relations. The chief, Lechulatebe, was
at last propitiated at a considerable sacrifice, having taken a fancy to
a valuable rifle of Livingstone's, the gift of a friend, which could not
be replaced. The chief vowed that if he got it he would give Livingstone
everything he wished, and protect and feed his wife and children into
the bargain, while he went on to Sebituane. Livingstone at once handed
him the gun. "It is of great consequence," he said, "to gain the
confidence of these fellows at the beginning." It was his intention that
Mrs. Livingstone and the children should remain at Lechulatebe's until
he should have returned. But the scheme was upset by an outburst of
fever. Among others, two of the children were attacked. There was no
help but to go home. The gun was left behind in the hope that ere long
Livingstone would get back to claim the fulfillment of the chiefs
promise. It was plain that the neighborhood of the lake was not
habitable by Europeans. Hence a fresh confirmation of his views as to
the need of native agency, if intertropical Africa was ever to be
Christianized.
But Livingstone was convinced that there must be a healthier spot to the
north. Writing to Mr. Watt (18th August, 1850), he not only expresses
this conviction, but gives the ground on which it rested. The extract
which we subjoin gives a glimpse of the sagacity that from apparently
little things drew great conclusions; but more than that, it indicates
the birth of the great idea that dominated the next period of
Livingstone's life--the desire and determination to find a passage to
the sea, either on the east or the west coast:
"A more salubrious climate must exist farther up to the
north, and that the country is higher, seems evident from the
fact mentioned by the Bakoba, that the water of the Teoge,
the river that falls into the 'Ngami at the northwest point
of it, flows with great rapidity. Canoes ascending, punt all
the way, and the men must hold on by reeds in order to
prevent their being carried down by the current. Large trees,
spring-bucks and other antelopes are sometimes brought down
by it. Do you wonder at my pressing on in the way we have
done? The Bechuana mission has been carried on in a
_cul-de-sac._ I tried to break through by going among the
Eastern tribes, but the Boers shut up that field. A French
missionary, Mr. Fredoux, of Motito, tried to follow on my
trail to the Bamangwato, but was turned back by a party of
armed Boers. When we burst through the barrier on the north,
it appeared very plain that no mission could be successful
there, unless we could get a well-watered country leaving a
passage to the sea on either the east or west coast. This
project I am almost afraid to meet, but nothing else will do.
I intend (D.V.) to go in next year and remain a twelvemonth.
My wife, poor soul--I pity her!--proposed to let me go for
that time while she remained at Kolobeng. You will pray for
us both during that period."
A week later (August 24, 1850) he writes to the Directors that no
convenient access to the region can be obtained from the south, the lake
being 870 miles from Kuruman:
"We must have a passage to the sea on either the eastern or
western coast. I have hitherto been afraid to broach the
subject on which my perhaps dreamy imagination dwells. You at
home are accustomed to look on a project as half finished
when you have received the co-operation of the ladies. My
better half has promised me a twelvemonth's leave of absence
for mine. Without promising anything, I mean to follow a
useful motto in many circumstances, and _Try again_."
On returning to Kolobeng, Mrs. Livingstone was delivered of a
daughter--her fourth child. An epidemic was raging at the time, and the
child was seized and cut off, at the age of six weeks. The loss, or
rather the removal, of the child affected Livingstone greatly. "It was
the first death in our family," he says in his Journal, "but was just as
likely to have happened had we remained at home, and We have now one of
our number in heaven."
To his parents he writes (4th December, 1850):
"Our last child, a sweet little girl with blue eyes, was
taken from us to join the company of the redeemed, through
the merits of Him of whom she never heard. It is wonderful
how soon the affections twine round a little stranger. We
felt her loss keenly. She was attacked by the prevailing
sickness, which attacked many native children, and bore up
under it for a fortnight. We could not apply remedies to one
so young, except the simplest. She uttered a piercing cry
previous to expiring, and then went away to see the King in
his beauty, and the land--the glorious land, and its
inhabitants. Hers is the first grave in all that country
marked as the resting-place of one of whom it is believed and
confessed that she shall live again."
Mrs. Livingstone had an attack of serious illness, accompanied by
paralysis of the right side of the face, and rest being essential for
her, the family went, for a time, to Kuruman. Dr. Livingstone had a
strong desire to go to the Cape for the excision of his uvula, which had
long been troublesome. But, with characteristic self-denial, he put his
own case out of view, staying with his wife, that she might have the
rest and attention she needed. He tried to persuade his father-in-law to
perform the operation, and, under his direction, Dr. Moffat went so far
as to make a pair of scissors for the purpose; but his courage, so well
tried in other fields, was not equal to the performance of such a
surgical operation.
Some glimpses of Livingstone's musings at this time, showing, among
other things, how much more he thought of his spiritual than his
Highland ancestry, occur in a letter to his parents, written immediately
after his return from his second visit to the lake (28th July, 1850). If
they should carry out their project of emigration to America, they would
have an interesting family gathering:
"One, however, will be 'over the hills and far away' from
your happy meeting. The meeting which we hope will take place
in Heaven will be unlike a happy one, in so far as earthly
relationships are concerned. One will be so much taken up in
looking at Jesus, I don't know when we shall be disposed to
sit down and talk about the days of lang syne. And then
there will be so many notables whom we should like to notice
and shake hands with--Luke, for instance, the beloved
physician, and Jeremiah, and old Job, and Noah, and Enoch,
that if you are wise, you will make the most of your union
while you are together, and not fail to write me fully, while
you have the opportunity here....
"Charles thinks we are not the descendants of the Puritans. I
don't know what you are, but I am. And if you dispute it, I
shall stick to the answer of a poor little boy before a
magistrate. M.--'Who were your parents?' _Boy_ (rubbing his
eyes with his jacket-sleeve)--'Never had none, sir.' Dr.
Wardlaw says that the Scotch Independents are the descendants
of the Puritans, and I suppose the pedigree is through
Rowland Hill and Whitefield. But I was a member of the very
church in which John Howe, the chaplain of Oliver Cromwell,
preached, and exercised the pastorate. I was ordained, too,
by English Independents. Moreover, I am a Doctor too. Agnes
and Janet, get up this moment and curtsy to his Reverence!
John and Charles, remember the dream of the sheaves! _I_
descended from kilts and Donald Dhus? Na, na, I won't
believe it.
"We have a difficult, difficult field to cultivate here. All
I can say is, that I think knowledge is increasing. But for
the belief that the Holy Spirit works, and will work for us,
I should give up in despair. Remember us in your prayers,
that we grow not weary in well-doing. It is hard to work for
years with pure motives, and all the time be looked on by
most of those to whom our lives are devoted, as having some
sinister object in view. Disinterested labor--benevolence--is
so out of their line of thought, that many look upon us as
having some ulterior object in view. But He who died for us,
and whom we ought to copy, did more for us than we can do for
any one else. He endured the contradiction of sinners. May we
have grace to follow in his steps!'
The third, and at last successful, effort to reach Sebituane was made in
April, 1851. Livingstone was again accompanied by his family, and by Mr.
Oswell. He left Kolobeng with the intention not to return, at least not
immediately, but to settle with his family in such a spot as might be
found advantageous, in the hilly region, of whose existence he was
assured. They found the desert drier than ever, no rain having fallen
throughout an immense extent of territory. To the kindness of Mr. Oswell
the party was indebted for most valuable assistance in procuring water,
wells having been dug or cleared by his people beforehand at various
places, and at one place at the hazard of Mr. Oswell's life, under an
attack from an infuriated lioness. In his private Journal, and in his
letters to home, Livingstone again and again acknowledges with deepest
gratitude the numberless acts of kindness done by Mr. Oswell to him and
his family, and often adds the prayer that God would reward him, and of
His grace give him the highest of all blessings. "Though I cannot repay,
I may record with gratitude his kindness, so that, if spared to look
upon these, my private memoranda, in future years, proper emotions may
ascend to Him who inclined his heart to show so much friendship."
The party followed the old route, around the bed of the Zouga, then
crossed a piece of the driest desert they had ever seen, with not an
insect or a bird to break the stillness. On the third day a bird chirped
in a bush, when the dog began to bark! Shobo, their guide, a Bushman,
lost his way, and for four days they were absolutely without water. In
his _Missionary Travels_, Livingstone records quietly, as was his wont
his terrible anxiety about his children.
"The supply of water in the wagons had been wasted by one of
our servants, and by the afternoon only a small portion
remained for the children. This was a bitterly anxious night;
and next morning, the less there was of water, the more
thirsty the little rogues became. The idea of their perishing
before our eyes was terrible; it would almost have been a
relief to me to have been reproached with being the entire
cause of the catastrophe, but not one syllable of upbraiding
was uttered by their mother, though the tearful eye told the
agony within. In the afternoon of the fifth day, to our
inexpressible relief, some of the men returned with a supply
of that fluid of which we had never before felt the
true value."
"No one," he remarks in his Journal, "knows the value of
water till be is deprived of it. We never need any spirits to
qualify it, or prevent an immense draught of it from doing us
harm. I have drunk water swarming with insects, thick with
mud, putrid from other mixtures, and no stinted draughts of
it either, yet never felt any inconvenience from it."
"My opinion is," he said on another occasion, "that the most
severe labors and privations may be undergone without
alcoholic stimulus, because those who have endured the most
had nothing else but water, and not always enough of that."
One of the great charms of Livingstone's character, and one of the
secrets of his power--his personal interest in each individual, however
humble--appeared in connection with Shobo, the Bushman guide, who misled
them and took the blunder so coolly. "What a wonderful people," he says
in his Journal, "the Bushmen are! always merry and laughing, and never
telling lies wantonly like the Bechuana. They have more of the
appearance of worship than any of the Bechuana. When will these dwellers
in the wilderness bow down before their Lord? No man seems to care for
the Bushman's soul. I often wished I knew their language, but never more
than when we traveled with our Bushman guide, Shobo."
Livingstone had given a fair trial to the experiment of traveling along
with his family. In one of his letters at this time he speaks of the
extraordinary pain caused by the mosquitoes of those parts, and of his
children being so covered with their bites, that not a square inch of
whole skin was to be found on their bodies. It is no wonder that he gave
up the idea of carrying them with him in the more extended journey he
was now contemplating. He could not leave them at Kolobeng, exposed to
the raids of the Boers; to Kuruman there were also invincible
objections; the only possible plan was to send them to England, though
he hoped that when he got settled in some suitable part of Sebituane's
dominions, with a free road to the sea, they would return to him, and
help him to bring the people to Christ.
In the _Missionary Travels_ Livingstone has given a full account of
Sebituane, chief of the Makololo, "unquestionably the greatest man in
all that country"--his remarkable career, his wonderful warlike exploits
(for which he could always bring forward justifying reasons), his
interesting and attractive character, and wide and powerful influence.
In one thing Sebituane was very like Livingstone himself; he had the art
of gaining the affections both of his own people and of strangers. When
a party of poor men came to his town to sell hoes or skins, he would sit
down among them, talk freely and pleasantly to them, and probably cause
some lordly dish to be brought, and give them a feast on it, perhaps the
first they had ever shared. Delighted beyond measure with his affability
and liberality, they felt their hearts warm toward him; and as he never
allowed a party of strangers to go away without giving every one of
them--servants and all--a present, his praises were sounded far and
wide. "He has a heart! he is wise!" were the usual expressions
Livingstone heard before he saw him.
Sebituane received Livingstone with great kindness, for it had been one
of the dreams of his life to have intercourse with the white man. He
placed full confidence in him from the beginning, and was ready to give
him everything he might need. On the first Sunday when the usual service
was held he was present, and Livingstone was very thankful that he was
there, for it turned out to be the only proclamation of the gospel he
ever heard. For just after realizing what he had so long and ardently
desired, he was seized with severe inflammation of the lungs, and died
after a fortnight's illness. Livingstone, being a stranger, feared to
prescribe, lest, in the event of his death, he should be accused of
having caused it. On visiting him, and seeing that he was dying, he
spoke a few words respecting hope after death. But being checked by the
attendants for introducing the subject, he could only commend his soul
to God. The last words of Sebituane were words of kindness to
Livingstone's son: "Take him to Maunku (one of his wives) and tell her
to give him some milk." Livingstone was deeply affected by his death. A
deeper sense of brotherhood, a warmer glow of affection had been
kindled in his heart toward Sebituane than had seemed possible. With his
very tender conscience and deep sense of spiritual realities,
Livingstone was afraid, as in the case of Sehamy eight years before,
that he had not spoken to him so pointedly as he might have done. It is
awfully affecting to follow him into the unseen world, of which he had
heard for the first time just before he was called away. In his Journal,
Livingstone gives way to his feelings as he very seldom allowed himself
to do. His words bring to mind David's lament for Jonathan or for
Absalom, although he had known Sebituane less than a month, and he was
one of the race whom many Boers and slave-stealers regarded as having
no souls:
"Poor Sebituane, my heart bleeds for thee; and what would I
not do for thee now? I will weep for thee till the day of my
death. Little didst thou think when, in the visit of the
white man, thou sawest the long cherished desires of years
accomplished, that the sentence of death had gone forth! Thou
thoughtest that thou shouldest procure a weapon from the
white man which would be a shield from the attacks of the
fierce Matebele; but a more deadly dart than theirs was aimed
at thee; and though, thou couldest well ward off a dart--none
ever better--thou didst not see that of the king of terrors.
I will weep for thee, my brother, and I will cast forth my
sorrows in despair for thy condition! But I know that thou
wilt receive no injustice whither thou art gone; 'Shall not
the Judge of all the earth do right?' I leave thee to Him.
Alas! alas! Sebituane. I might have said more to him. God
forgive me. Free me from blood-guiltiness. If I had said more
of death I might have been suspected as having foreseen the
event, and as guilty of bewitching him. I might have
recommended Jesus and his great atonement more. It is,
however, very difficult to break through the thick crust of
ignorance which envelops their minds."
The death of Sebituane was a great blow in another sense. The region
over which his influence extended was immense, and he had promised to
show it to Livingstone and to select a suitable locality for his
residence. This heathen chief would have given to Christ's servant what
the Boers refused him! Livingstone would have had his wish--an entirely
new country to work upon, where the name of Christ had never yet been
spoken. So at least he thought. Sebituane's successor in the chiefdom
was his daughter, Ma-mochisane. From her he received liberty to visit
any part of the country he chose. While waiting for a reply (she was
residing at a distance), he one day fell into a great danger from an
elephant which had come on him unexpectedly. "We were startled by his
coming a little way in the direction in which we were standing, but he
did not give us chase. I have had many escapes. We seem immortal till
our work is done."
Mr. Oswell and he then proceeded in a northeasterly direction, passing
through the town of Linyanti, and on the 3d of August they came on the
beautiful river at Seshéke:
"We thanked God for permitting us to see this glorious river.
All we said to each other was 'How glorious! how magnificent!
how beautiful!'... In crossing, the waves lifted up the canoe
and made it roll beautifully. The scenery of the Firths of
Forth and Clyde was brought vividly to my view, and had I
been fond of indulging in sentimental effusions, my lachrymal
apparatus seemed fully charged. But then the old man who was
conducting us across might have said, 'What on earth are you
blubbering for? Afraid of these crocodiles, eh?' The little
sentimentality which exceeded was forced to take its course
down the inside of the nose. We have other work in this world
than indulging in sentimentality of the 'Sonnet to the Moon'
variety."
The river, which went here by the name of Seshéke, was found to be the
Zambesi, which had not previously been known to exist in that region. In
writing about it to his brother Charles, he says, "It was the first
_river_ I ever saw." Its discovery in this locality constituted one of
the great geographical feats with which the name of Livingstone is
connected. He heard of rapids above, and of great water-falls below; but
it was reserved for him on a future visit to behold the great Victoria
Falls, which in the popular imagination have filled a higher place than
many of his more useful discoveries.
The travelers were still a good many days' distance from Ma-mochisane,
without whose presence nothing could be settled; but besides, the reedy
banks of the rivers were found to be unsuitable for a settlement, and
the higher regions were too much exposed to the attacks of Mosilikatse.
Livingstone saw no prospect of obtaining a suitable station, and with
great reluctance he made up his mind to retrace the weary road, and
return to Kolobeng. The people were very anxious for him to stay, and
offered to make a garden for him, and to fulfill Sebituane's promise to
give him oxen in return for those killed by the tsetse.
Setting out with the wagons on 13th August, 1851, the party proceeded
slowly homeward. On 15th September, 1851, Livingstone's Journal has this
unexpected and simple entry: "A son, William Oswell Livingstone[32],
born at a place we always call Bellevue." On the 18th: "Thomas attacked
by fever; removed to a high part on his account. Thomas was seized with
fever three times at about an interval of a fortnight." Not a word about
Mrs. Livingstone, but three pages of observations about medical
treatment of fever, thunderstorms, constitutions of Indian and African
people, leanness of the game, letter received from Directors approving
generally of his course, a gold watch sent by Captain Steele, and Gordon
Cumming's book, "a miserably poor thing." Amazed, we ask, Had
Livingstone any heart? But ere long we come upon a copy of a letter, and
some remarks connected with it, that give us an impression of the depth
and strength of his nature, unsurpassed by anything that has
yet occurred.
[Footnote 32: He had intended to call him Charles, and announced this to
his father; but, finding that Mr. Oswell, to whom he was so much
indebted, would be pleased with the compliment, he changed his purpose
and the name accordingly.]
"The following extracts," he says, "show in what light our efforts are
regarded by those who, as much as we do, desire that the 'gospel may be
preached to all nations,'" Then follows a copy of a letter which had
been addressed to him before they set out by Mrs. Moffat, his
mother-in-law, remonstrating in the strongest terms against his plan of
taking his wife with him; reminding him of the death of the child, and
other sad occurrences of last year; and in the name of everything that
was just, kind, and even decent, beseeching him to abandon an
arrangement which all the world would condemn. Another letter from the
same writer informed him that much prayer had been offered that, if the
arrangements were not in accordance with Christian propriety, he might
in great mercy be prevented by some dispensation of Providence from
carrying them out. Mrs. Moffat was a woman of the highest gifts and
character, and full of admiration for Livingstone. The insertion of
these letters in his Journal shows that, in carrying out his plan, the
objections to which it was liable were before his mind in the strongest
conceivable form. No man who knows what Livingstone was will imagine for
a moment that he had not the most tender regard for the health, the
comfort, and the feelings of his wife; in matters of delicacy he had the
most scrupulous regard to propriety; his resolution to take her with him
must, therefore, have sprung from something far stronger than even his
affection for her. What was this stronger force?
It was his inviolable sense of duty, and his indefeasible conviction
that his Father in heaven would not forsake him whilst pursuing a course
in obedience to his will, and designed to advance the welfare of his
children. As this furnishes the key to Livingstone's future life, and
the answer to one of the most serious objections ever brought against
it, it is right to spend a little time in elucidating the principles by
which he was guided.
There was a saying of the late Sir Herbert Edwardes which he highly
valued: "He who has to act on his own responsibility is a slave if he
does not act on his own judgment." Acting on this maxim, he must set
aside the views of others as to his duty, provided his own judgment was
clear regarding it. He must even set aside the feelings and apparent
interest of those dearest to him, because duty was above everything
else. His faith in God convinced him that, in the long run, it could
never be the worse for him and his that he had firmly done his duty. All
true faith has in it an element of venture, and in Livingstone's faith
this element was strong. Trusting God, he could expose to venture even
the health, comfort, and welfare of his wife and children. He was
convinced that it was his duty to go forth with them and seek a new
station for the Gospel in Sebituane's country. If this was true, God
would take care of them, and it was "better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in man." People thoughtlessly accused him of making light
of the interests of his family. No man suffered keener pangs from the
course he had to follow concerning them, and no man pondered more deeply
what duty to them required.
But to do all this, Livingstone must have had a very clear perception of
the course of duty. This is true. But how did he get this? First, his
singleness of heart, so to speak, attracted the light: "If thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Then, he was very clear
and very minute in his prayers. Further, he was most careful to scan all
the providential indications that might throw light on the Divine will.
And when he had been carried so far on in the line of duty, he had a
strong presumption that the line would be continued, and that he would
not be called to turn back. It was in front, not in rear, that he
expected to find the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. In course
of time, this hardened into a strong instinctive habit, which almost
dispensed with the process of reasoning.
In Dean Stanley's _Sinai and Palestine_ allusion is made to a kindred
experience,--that which bore Abraham from Chaldea, Moses from Egypt, and
the greater part of the tribes from the comfortable pastures of Gilead
and Bashan to the rugged hill-country of Judah and Ephraim.
Notwithstanding all the attractions of the richer countries, they were
borne onward and forward, not knowing whither they went; instinctively
feeling that they were fulfilling the high purposes to which they were
called. In the later part of Livingstone's life, the necessity of going
forward to the close of the career that had opened for him seemed to
settle the whole question of duty.
But at this earlier stage, he had been conscientiously scrutinizing all
that had any bearing on that question; and now that he finds himself
close to his home, and can thank God for the safe confinement of his
wife, and the health of the new-born child, he gathers together all the
providences that showed that in this journey, which excited such horror
even among his best friends, he had after all been following the
guidance of his Father. First, in the matter of guides, he had been
wonderfully helped, notwithstanding a deep plot to deprive him of any.
Then there was the sickness of Sekómi, whose interest had been secured
through his going to see him, and prescribing for him; this had
propitiated one of the tribes. The services of Shobo, too, and the
selection of the northern route, proposed by Kamati, had been of great
use. Their going to Seshéke, and their detention for two months, thus
allowing them time to collect information respecting the whole country;
the river Chobe not rising at its usual time; the saving of
Livingstone's oxen from the tsetse, notwithstanding their detention on
the Zouga; his not going with Mr. Oswell to a place where the tsetse
destroyed many of the oxen; the better health of Mrs. Livingstone during
her confinement than in any previous one; a very opportune present they
had got, just before her confinement, of two bottles of wine[33]; the
approbation of the Directors, the presentation of a gold watch by
Captain Steele, the kind attentions of Mr. Oswell, and the cookery of
one of their native servants named George; the recovery of Thomas,
whereas at Kuruman a child had been cut off; the commencement of the
rains, just as they were leaving the river, and the request of Mr.
Oswell that they should draw upon him for as much money as they should
need, were all among the indications that a faithful and protecting
Father in heaven had been ordering their path, and would order it in
like manner in all time to come.
[Footnote 33: In writing to his father, Livingstone mentions that the
wine was a gift from Mrs. Bysshe Shelley, in acknowledgment of his aid
in repairing a wheel of her wagon.]
Writing at this time to his father-in-law, Mr. Moffat, he said, after
announcing the birth of Oswell: "What you say about difference of
opinion is true. In my past life, I have always managed to think for
myself, and act accordingly. I have occasionally met with people who
took it on themselves to act for me, and they have offered their
thoughts with an emphatic 'I think'; but I have excused them on the
score of being a little soft-headed in believing they could think both
for me and themselves."
While Kolobeng was Livingstone's headquarters, a new trouble rose upon
the mission horizon. The Makololo (as Sebituane's people were called)
began to practice the slave-trade. It arose simply from their desire to
possess guns. For eight old muskets they had given to a neighboring
tribe eight boys, that had been taken from their enemies in war, being
the only article for which the guns could be got. Soon after, in a fray
against another tribe, two hundred captives were taken, and, on
returning, the Makololo met some Arab traders from Zanzibar, who for
three muskets received about thirty of their captives.
Another of the master ideas of his life now began to take hold upon
Livingstone. Africa was exposed to a terrible evil through the desire of
the natives to possess articles of European manufacture, and their
readiness for this purpose to engage in the slave-trade. Though no
African had ever been known to sell his own children into captivity, the
tribes were ready enough to sell other children that had fallen into
their hands by war or otherwise. But if a legitimate traffic were
established through which they might obtain whatever European goods they
desired in exchange for ivory and other articles of native produce,
would not this frightful slave-trade be brought to an end? The idea was
destined to receive many a confirmation before Livingstone drew his last
breath of African air. It naturally gave a great impulse to the purpose
which had already struck its roots into his soul--to find a road to the
sea either on the eastern or western coast. Interests wider and grander
than even the planting of mission stations on the territories of
Sebituane now rose to his view. The welfare of the whole continent, both
spiritual and temporal, was concerned in the success of this plan of
opening new channels to the enterprise of British and other merchants,
always eager to hear of new markets for their goods. By driving away the
slave-trade, much would be done to prepare the way for Christian
missions which could not thrive in an atmosphere of war and commotion.
An idea involving issues so vast was fitted to take a right powerful
hold on Livingstone's heart, and make him feel that no sacrifice could
be too great to be encountered, cheerfully and patiently, for such
an end.
Writing to the Directors (October, 1851), he says:
"You will see by the accompanying sketch-map what an immense
region God in his grace has opened up. If we can enter in and
form a settlement, we shall be able in the course of a very
few years to put a stop to the slave-trade in that quarter.
It is probable that the mere supply of English manufacturers
on Sebituane's part will effect this, for they did not like
the slave-trade, and promised to abstain. I think it will be
impossible to make a fair commencement unless I can secure
two years devoid of family cares. I shall be obliged to go
southward, perhaps to the Cape, to have my uvula excised and
my arm mended (the latter, if it can be done, only). It has
occurred to me that, as we must send our children to England,
it would be no great additional expense to send them now
along with their mother. This arrangement would enable me to
proceed, and devote about two or perhaps three years to this
new region; but I must beg your sanction, and if you please
let it be given or withheld as soon as you can conveniently,
so that it might meet me at the Cape. To orphanize my
children will be like tearing out my bowels, but when I can
find time to write you fully you will perceive it is the only
way, except giving up that region altogether.
"Kuruman will not answer as a residence, nor yet the Colony.
If I were to follow my own inclinations, they would lead me
to settle down quietly with the Bakwains, or some other small
tribe, and devote some of my time to my children; but
_Providence seems to call me to the regions beyond_, and if I
leave them anywhere in this country, it will be to let them
become heathens. If you think it right to support them, I
believe my parents in Scotland would attend to them
otherwise."
Continuing the subject in a more leisurely way a few weeks later, he
refers to the very great increase of traffic that had taken place since
the discovery of Lake 'Ngami two years before; the fondness of the
people for European articles; the numerous kinds of native produce
besides ivory, such as beeswax, ostrich feathers, etc., of which the
natives made little or no use, but which they would take care of if
regular trade were established among them. He thought that if traders
were to come up the Zambesi and make purchases from the producers they
would both benefit themselves and drive the slave-dealer from the
market. It might be useful to establish a sanatorium, to which
missionaries might come from less healthy districts to recruit. This
would diminish the reluctance of missionaries to settle in the interior.
For himself, though he had reared three stations with much bodily labor
and fatigue, he would cheerfully undergo much more if a new station
would answer such objects. In referring to the countries drained by the
Zambesi, he believed he was speaking of a large section of the
slave-producing region of Africa. He then went on to say that to a
certain extent their hopes had been disappointed; Mr. Oswell had not
been able to find a passage to the sea, and he had not been able to find
a station for missionary work. They therefore returned together. "He
assisted me," adds Livingstone, "in every possible way. May God
reward him!"
In regard to mission work for the future an important question arose,
What should be done for the Bakwains? They could not remain at
Kolobeng--hunger and the Boers decided that point. Was it not, then, his
duty to find and found a new station for them? Dr. Livingstone thought
not. He had always told them that he would remain with them only for a
few years. One of his great ideas on missions in Africa was that a fair
trial should be given to as many places as possible, and if the trial
did not succeed the missionaries should pass on to other tribes. He had
a great aversion to the common impression that the less success one had
the stronger was one's duty to remain. Missionaries were only too ready
to settle down and make themselves as comfortable as possible, whereas
the great need was for men to move on, to strike out into the regions
beyond, to go into all the world. He had far more sympathy for tribes
that had never heard the gospel than for those who had had it for years.
He used to refer to certain tribes near Griqualand that had got a little
instruction, but had no stated missionaries; they used to send some of
their people to the Griquas to learn what they could, and afterward some
others; and these persons, returning, communicated what they knew, till
a wonderful measure of knowledge was acquired, and a numerous church was
formed. If the seed had once been sown in any place it would not remain
dormant, but would excite the desire for further knowledge; and on the
whole it would be better for the people to be thrown somewhat on their
own resources than to have everything done for them by missionaries from
Europe. In regard to the Bakwains, though they had promised well at
first, they had not been a very teachable people. He was not inclined to
blame them; they had been so pinched by hunger and badgered by the Boers
that they could not attend to instruction; or rather, they had too good
an excuse for not doing so. "I have much affection for them," he says in
his Journal, "and though I pass from them I do not relinquish the hope
that they will yet turn to Him to whose mercy and love they have often
been invited. The seed of the living Word will not perish."
The finger of Providence clearly pointed to a region farther north in
the country of the Barotse or beyond it, He admitted that there were
_pros_ and _cons_ in the case. Against his plan,--some of his brethren
did not hesitate to charge him with being actuated by worldly ambition.
This was the more trying, for sometimes he suspected his own motives.
Others dwelt on what was due to his family. Moreover, his own
predilections were all for a quiet life. And there was also the
consideration, that as the Directors could not well realize the
distances he would have to travel before he reached the field, he might
appear more as an explorer than a missionary. On the other hand:
"I am conscious," he says, "that though there is much
impurity in my motives, they are in the main for the glory of
Him to whom I have devoted myself. I never anticipated fame
from the discovery of the Lake. I cared very little about it,
but the sight of the Tamanak'le, and the report of other
large rivers beyond, all densely populated, awakened many and
enthusiastic feelings.... Then, again, consider the multitude
that in the Providence of God have been brought to light in
the country of Sebituane; the probability that in our efforts
to evangelize we shall put a stop to the slave-trade in a
large region, and by means of the highway into the North
which we have discovered bring unknown nations into the
sympathies of the Christian world. If I were to choose my
work, it would be to reduce this new language, translate the
Bible into it, and be the means of forming a small church.
Let this be accomplished, I think I could then lie down and
die contented. Two years' absence will be necessary....
Nothing but a strong conviction that the step will lead to
the glory of Christ would make me orphanize my children. Even
now my bowels yearn over them. They Will forget me; but I
hope when the day of trial comes, I shall not be found a more
sorry soldier than those who serve an earthly sovereign.
Should you not feel yourselves justified in incurring the
expense of their support in England, I shall feel called upon
to renounce the hope of carrying the gospel into that
country, and labor among those who live in a more healthy
country, viz., the Bakwains. But, stay, I am not sure; so
powerfully convinced am I that it is the will of the Lord I
should, _I will go, no matter who opposes_; but from you I
expect nothing but encouragement. I know you wish as ardently
as I can that all the world may be filled with the glory of
the Lord. I feel relieved when I lay the whole case before
you."
He proposed that a brother missionary, Mr. Ashton, should be placed
among the Bamangwato, a people who were in the habit of spreading
themselves through the Bakalahari, and should thus form a link between
himself and the brethren in the south.
In a postscript, dated Bamangwato, 14th November, he gratefully
acknowledges a letter from the Directors, in which his plans are
approved of generally. They had recommended him to complete a dictionary
of the Sichuana language. This he would have been delighted to do when
his mind was full of the subject, but with the new projects now before
him, and the probability of having to deal with a new language for the
Zambesi district, he could not undertake such a work at present.
In a subsequent letter to the Directors (Cape Town, 17th March, 1852),
Livingstone finds it necessary to go into full details with regard to
his finances. Though he writes with perfect calmness, it is evident that
his exchequer was sadly embarrassed. In fact, he had already not only
spent all the salary (£100) of 1852, but fifty-seven pounds of 1853, and
the balance would be absorbed by expenses in Cape Town. He had been as
economical as possible; in personal expenditure most careful--he had
been a teetotaler for twenty years. He did not hesitate to express his
conviction that the salary was inadequate, and to urge the Directors to
defray the extra expenditure which was now inevitable; but with
characteristic generosity he urged Mr. Moffat's Claims much more warmly
than his own.
From expressions in Livingstone's letter to the Directors, it is
evident that he was fully aware of the risk he ran, in his new line of
work, of appearing to sink the missionary in the explorer. There is no
doubt that next to the charge of forgetting the claims of his family, to
which we have already adverted, this was the most plausible of the
objections taken to his subsequent career. But any one who has candidly
followed his course of thought and feeling from the moment when the
sense of unseen realities burst on him at Blantyre, to the time at which
we have now arrived, must see that this view is altogether destitute of
support. The impulse of divine love that had urged him first to become a
missionary had now become with him the settled habit of his life. No new
ambition had flitted across his path, for though he had become known as
a geographical discoverer, he says he thought very little of the fact,
and his life shows this to have been true. Twelve years of missionary
life had given birth to no sense of weariness, no abatement of interest
in these poor black savages, no reluctance to make common cause with
them in the affairs of life, no despair of being able to do them good.
On the contrary, he was confirmed in his opinion of the efficacy of his
favorite plan of native agency, and if he could but get a suitable base
of operations, he was eager to set it going, and on every side he was
assured of native welcome. Shortly before (5th February, 1850), when
writing to his father with reference to a proposal of his brother
Charles that he should go and settle in America, he had said: "I am a
missionary, heart and soul. God had an only Son, and He was a missionary
and a physician. A poor, poor imitation of Him I am, or wish to be. In
this service I hope to live, in it I wish to die." The spectre of the
slave-trade had enlarged his horizon, and shown him the necessity of a
commercial revolution for the whole of Africa, before effectual and
permanent good could be done in any part of it. The plan which he had
now in view multiplied the risks he ran, and compelled him to think anew
whether he was ready to sacrifice himself, and if so, for what. All
that Livingstone did was thus done with open eyes and well-considered
resolution. Adverting to the prevalence of fever in some parts of the
country, while other parts were comparatively healthy, he says in his
Journal: "I offer myself as a forlorn hope in order to ascertain whether
there is a place fit to be a sanatorium for more unhealthy spots. May
God accept my service, and use me for his glory. A great honor it is to
he a fellow-worker with God." "It is a great venture," he writes to his
sister (28th April, 1851). "Fever may cut us all off. I feel much when I
think of the children dying. But who will go if we don't? Not one. I
would venture everything for Christ. Pity I have so little to give. But
He will accept us, for He is a good master. Never one like Him. He can
sympathize. May He forgive, and purify, and bless us."
If in his spirit of high consecration he was thus unchanged, equally far
was he from having a fanatical disregard of life, and the rules of
provident living.
"Jesus," he says, "came not to judge,--[Greek:
kriuo],--condemn judicially, or execute vengeance on any one.
His was a message of peace and love. He shall not strive nor
cry, neither shall his voice he heard in the streets.
Missionaries ought to follow his example. Neither insist on
our rights, nor appear as if we could allow our goods to be
destroyed without regret: for if we are righteous overmuch,
or stand up for our rights with too much vehemence, we beget
dislikes, and the people see no difference between ourselves
and them. And if we appear to care nothing for the things of
this world, they conclude we are rich, and when they beg, our
refusal is ascribed to niggardliness, and our property, too,
is wantonly destroyed. 'Ga ba tloke'=they are not in need, is
the phrase employed when our goods are allowed to go to
destruction by the neglect of servants.... In coming among
savage people, we ought to make them feel we are of them, 'we
seek not yours, but you'; but while very careful not to make
a gain of them, we ought to be as careful to appear thankful,
and appreciate any effort they may make for our comfort or
subsistence."
On reaching Kolobeng from 'Ngami they found the station deserted. The
Bakwains had removed to Limaüe. Sechéle came down the day after, and
presented them with an ox--a valuable gift in his circumstances. Sechéle
had much yet to bear from the Boers; and after being, without
provocation, attacked, pillaged, and wasted, and robbed of his children,
he was bent on going to the Queen of England to state his wrongs. This,
however, he could not accomplish, though he went as far as the Cape.
Coming back afterward to his own people, he gathered large numbers about
him from other tribes, to whose improvement he devoted himself with much
success. He still survives, with the one wife whom he retained; and,
though not without some drawbacks (which Livingstone ascribed to the bad
example set him by some), he maintains his Christian profession. His
people are settled at some miles' distance from Kolobeng, and have a
missionary station, supported by a Hanoverian Society. His regard for
the memory of Livingstone is very great, and he reads with eagerness all
that he can find about him. He has ever been a warm friend of missions
has a wonderful knowledge of the Bible, and can preach well. The
influence of Livingstone in his early days was doubtless a real power in
mission-work. Mebalwe, too, we are informed by Dr. Moffat, still
survives; a useful man, an able preacher, and one who has done much to
bring his people to Christ.
It was painful to Livingstone to say good-bye to the Bakwains, and (as
Mrs. Moffat afterward reminded him) his friends were not all in favor of
his doing so; but he regarded his departure as inevitable. After a short
stay at Kuruman, he and his family went on to Cape Town, where they
arrived on the 16th of March, 1852, and had new proofs of Mr. Oswell's
kindness. After eleven years' absence, Livingstone's dress-coat had
fallen a little out of fashion, and the whole costume of the party was
somewhat in the style of Robinson Crusoe. The generosity of "the best
friend we have in Africa" made all comfortable, Mr. Oswell remarking
that Livingstone had as good a right as he to the money drawn from the
"preserves on his estate"--the elephants. Mentally, Livingstone traces
to its source the kindness of his friend, thinking of One to whom he
owed all--"O divine Love, I have not loved Thee strongly, deeply, warmly
enough." The retrospect of his eleven years of African labor, unexampled
though they had been, only awakened in him the sense of
unprofitable service.
Before closing the record of this period, we must take a glance at the
remarkable literary activity which it witnessed. We have had occasion to
refer to Livingstone's first letters to Captain Steele, for the
Geographical Society; additional letters were contributed from time to
time. His philological researches have also been noticed. In addition to
these, we find him writing two articles on African Missions for the
_British Quarterly Review_, only one of which was published. He likewise
wrote two papers for the _British Banner_ on the Boers. While crossing
the desert, after leaving the Cape on his first great journey, he wrote
a remarkable paper on "Missionary Sacrifices," and another of great
vigor on the Boers. Still another paper on Lake 'Ngami was written for a
Missionary Journal contemplated, but never started, under the editorship
of the late Mr. Isaac Taylor; and he had one in his mind on the religion
of the Bechuanas, presenting a view which differed somewhat from that of
Mr. Moffat. Writing to Mr. Watt from Linyanti (3d October, 1853), on
printing one of his papers, he says:
"But the expense, my dear man. What a mess I am in, writing
papers which cannot pay their own way! Pauper papers, in
fact, which must go to the workhouse for support. Ugh! Has
the Caffre War paper shared the same fate? and the Language
paper too? Here I have two by me, which I will keep in their
native obscurity. One is on the South African Boers and
slavery, in which I show that their church is, and always has
been, the great bulwark of slavery, cattle-lifting, and
Caffre-marauding; and I correct the mistaken views of some
writers who describe the Boers as all that is good, and of
others who describe as all that is bad, by showing who are
the good and who are the bad. The other, which I rather
admire,--what father doesn't his own progeny?--is on the
missionary work, and designed to aid young men of piety to
form a more correct idea of it than is to be had from much of
the missionary biography of 'sacrifices.' I magnify the
enterprise, exult in the future, etc., etc. It was written in
coming across the desert, and if it never does aught else, it
imparted comfort and encouragement to myself[34].... I feel
almost inclined to send it.... If the Caffre War one is
rejected, then farewell to spouting in Reviews."
[Footnote 34: For extracts from the paper on "Missionary Sacrifices,"
see Appendix No. I. For part of the paper on the Boers, see _Catholic
Presbyterian_ December, 1879 (London, Nisbet and Co.).]
If he had met with more encouragement from editors he would have written
more. But the editorial cold shoulder was beyond even his power of
endurance. He laid aside his pen in a kind of disgust, and this
doubtless was one of the reasons that made him unwilling to resume it on
his return to England. Editors were wiser then; and the offer from one
London Magazine of £400 for four articles, and from _Good Words_ of
£1000 for a number of papers to be fixed afterward,--offers which,
however, were not accepted finally,--showed how the tide had turned.
CHAPTER VII.
FROM THE CAPE TO LINYANTI.
A.D. 1852-1853.
Unfavorable feeling at Cape Town--Departure of Mrs. Livingstone and
children--Livingstone's detention and difficulties--Letter to his
wife--To Agnes--Occupations at Cape Town--The
Astronomer-Royal--Livingstone leaves the Cape and reaches
Kuruman--Destruction of Kolobeng by the Boers--Letters to his wife and
Rev. J. Moore--His resolution to open up Africa _or perish_--Arrival at
Linyanti--Unhealthiness of the country--Thoughts on setting out for
coast--Sekelétu's kindness--Livingstone's missionary activity--Death of
Mpepe, and of his father--Meeting with Ma-mochisane--Barotse
country--Determines to go to Loanda--Heathenism unadulterated--Taste for
the beautiful--Letter to his children--to his father--Last Sunday at
Linyanti--Prospect of his falling.
When Livingstone arrived at the Cape, he found the authorities in a
state of excitement over the Caffre War, and very far from friendly
toward the London Missionary Society, some of whose
missionaries--himself among the number--were regarded as "unpatriotic."
He had a very poor opinion of the officials, and their treatment of the
natives scandalized him. He describes the trial of an old soldier,
Botha, as "the most horrid exhibition I ever witnessed." The noble
conduct of Botha in prison was a beautiful contrast to the scene in
court. This whole Caffre War had exemplified the blundering of the
British authorities, and was teaching the natives developments, the
issue of which could not be foreseen. As for himself, he writes to Mr.
Moffat, that he was cordially hated, and perhaps he might be pulled up;
but he knew that some of his letters had been read by the Duke of
Wellington and Lord Brougham with pleasure, and, possibly, he might get
justice. He bids his father-in-law not to be surprised if he saw him
abused in the newspapers.
On the 23d April, 1852, Mrs. Livingstone and the four children sailed
from Cape Town for England. The sending of his children to be brought up
by others was a very great trial, and Dr. Livingstone seized the
opportunity to impress on the Directors that those by whom missionaries
were sent out had a great duty to the children whom their parents were
compelled to send away. Referring to the filthy conversation and ways of
the heathen, he says:
"Missionaries expose their children to a contamination which
they have had no hand in producing. We expose them and
ourselves for a time in order to elevate those sad captives
of sin and Satan, who are the victims of the degradation of
ages. None of those who complain about missionaries sending
their children home ever descend to this. And again, as Mr.
James in his _Young Man from Home_ forcibly shows, a greater
misfortune cannot befall a youth than to be cast into the
world without a home. In regard to even the vestige of a
home, my children are absolutely vagabonds. When shall we
return to Kolobeng? When to Kuruman? _Never_. The mark of
Cain is on your foreheads, your father is a missionary. Our
children ought to have both the sympathies and prayers of
those at whose bidding we become strangers for life."
Was there ever a plea more powerful or more just? It is sad to think
that the coldness of Christians at home should have led a man like
Livingstone to fancy that, because his children were the children of a
missionary, they would bear the mark of Cain, and be homeless vagabonds.
Why are we at home so forgetful of the privilege of refreshing the
bowels of those who take their lives in their hands for the love of
Christ, by making a home for their offspring? In a higher state of
Christianity there will be hundreds of the best families at home
delighted, for the love of their Master, to welcome and bring up the
missionary's children. And when the Great Day comes, none will more
surely receive that best of all forms of repayment, "Inasmuch as ye did
it unto the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto Me."
Livingstone, who had now got the troublesome uvula cut out, was
detained at the Cape nearly two months after his family left. He was so
distrusted by the authorities that they would hardly sell powder and
shot to him, and he had to fight a battle that demanded all his courage
and perseverance for a few boxes of percussion-caps. At the last moment,
a troublesome country postmaster, to whom he had complained of an
overcharge of postage, threatened an action against him for defamation
of character, and, rather than be further detained, deep in debt though
he was, Livingstone had to pay him a considerable sum. His family were
much in his thoughts; he found some relief in writing by every mail. His
letters to his wife are too sacred to be spread before the public; we
confine ourselves to a single extract, to show over what a host of
suppressed emotions he had to march in this expedition:
"_Cape Town, 5th May_, 1852.--MY DEAREST MARY,--How I miss
you now, and the children! My heart yearns incessantly over
you. How many thoughts of the past crowd into my mind! I feel
as if I would treat you all much more tenderly and lovingly
than ever. You have been a great blessing to me. You attended
to my comfort in many, many ways. May God bless you for all
your kindnesses! I see no face now to be compared with that
sunburnt one which has so often greeted me with its kind
looks. Let us do our duty to our Saviour, and we shall meet
again. I wish that time were now. You may read the letters
over again which I wrote at Mabotsa, the sweet time you know.
As I told you before, I tell you again, they are true, true;
there is not a bit of hypocrisy in them. I never show all my
feelings; but I can say truly, my dearest, that I loved you
when I married you, and the longer I lived with you, I loved
you the better.... Let us do our duty to Christ, and He will
bring us through the world with honor and usefulness. He is
our refuge and high tower; let us trust in Him at all times,
and in all circumstances. Love Him more and more, and diffuse
his love among the children. Take them all round you, and
kiss them for me. Tell them I have left them for the love of
Jesus, and they must love Him too, and avoid sin, for that
displeases Jesus. I shall be delighted to hear of you all
safe in England...."
A few days later, he writes to his eldest daughter, then in her fifth
year:
"_Cape Town, 18th May_, 1852.--MY DEAR AGNES,--This is your
own little letter. Mamma will read it to you, and you will
hear her just as if I were speaking to you, for the words
which I write are those which she will read. I am still at
Cape Town. You know you left me there when you all went into
the big ship and sailed away. Well, I shall leave Cape Town
soon. Malatsi has gone for the oxen, and then I shall go away
back to Sebituane's country, and see Seipone and Meriye, who
gave you the beads and fed you with milk and honey. I shall
not see you again for a long time, and I am very sorry. I
have no Nannie now. I have given you back to Jesus, your
Friend--your Papa who is in heaven. He is above you, but He
is always near you. When we ask things from Him, that is
praying to Him; and if you do or say a naughty thing ask Him
to pardon you, and bless you, and make you one of his
children. Love Jesus much, for He loves you, and He came and
died for you. Oh, how good Jesus is! I love Him, and I shall
love Him as long as I live. You must love Him too, and you
must love your brothers and mamma, and never tease them or be
naughty, for Jesus does not like to see
naughtiness.--Good-bye, my dear Nannie,
D. LIVINGSTON."
Among his other occupations at Cape Town, Livingstone put himself under
the instructions of the Astronomer-Royal, Mr. (afterward Sir Thomas)
Maclear, who became one of his best and most esteemed friends. His
object was to qualify himself more thoroughly for taking observations
that would give perfect accuracy to his geographical explorations. He
tried English preaching too, but his throat was still tender, and he
felt very nervous, as he had done at Ongar. "What a little thing," he
writes to Mr. Moffat, "is sufficient to bring down to old-wifeishness
such a rough tyke as I consider myself! Poor, proud human nature is a
great fool after all." A second effort was more successful. "I
preached," he writes to his wife, "on the text, 'Why will ye die?' I had
it written out and only referred to it twice, which is an improvement in
English. I hope good was done. The people were very attentive indeed. I
felt less at a loss than in Union Chapel[35]." He arranged with a
mercantile friend, Mr. Rutherfoord, to direct the operations of a native
trader, George Fleming, whom that gentleman was to employ for the
purpose of introducing lawful traffic in order to supplant the
slave-trade.
[Footnote 35: The manuscript of this sermon still exists. The sermon is
very simple, scriptural, and earnest, in the style of Bishop Ryle, or of
Mr. Moody.]
It was not till the 8th of June that he left the Cape. His wagon was
loaded to double the usual weight from his good nature in taking
everybody's packages. His oxen were lean, and he was too poor to provide
better. He reached Griqua Town on the 15th August, and Kuruman a
fortnight later. Many things had occasioned unexpected delay, and the
last crowning detention was caused by the breaking down of a wheel. It
turned out, however, that these delays were probably the means of saving
his life. Had they not occurred he would have reached Kolobeng in
August. But this was the very time when the commando of the Boers,
numbering 600 colonists and many natives besides, were busy with the
work of death and destruction. Had he been at Kolobeng, Pretorius would
probably have executed his threat of killing him; at the least he would
have been deprived of all the property that he carried with him, and his
projected enterprise would have been brought to an end.
In a letter to his wife, Livingstone gives full details of the horrible
outrage perpetrated shortly before by the Boers at Kolobeng:
"_Kuruman, 20th September_, 1852.--Along with this I send you
a long letter; this I write in order to give you the latest
news. The Boers gutted our house at Kolobeng; they brought
four wagons down and took away sofa, table, bed, all the
crockery, your desk (I hope it had nothing in it--Have you
the letters?), smashed the wooden chairs, took away the iron
ones, tore out the leaves of all the books, and scattered
them in front of the house, smashed the bottles containing
medicines, windows, oven-door, took away the smith-bellows,
anvil, all the tools,--in fact everything worth taking; three
corn-mills, a bag of coffee, for which I paid six pounds, and
lots of coffee, tea, and sugar, which the gentlemen who went
to the north left; took all our cattle and Paul's and
Mebalwe's. They then went up to Limaüe, went to church
morning and afternoon, and heard Mebalwe preach! After the
second service they told Sechéle that they had come to fight,
because he allowed Englishmen to proceed to the North, though
they had repeatedly ordered him not to do so. He replied that
he was a man of peace, that he could not molest Englishmen,
because they had never done him any harm, and always treated
him well. In the morning they commenced firing on the town
with swivels, and set fire to it. The heat forced some of the
women to flee, the men to huddle together on the small hill
in the middle of the town; the smoke prevented them seeing
the Boers, and the cannon killed many, sixty (60) Bakwains.
The Boers then came near to kill and destroy them all, but
the Bakwains killed thirty-five (35), and many horses. They
fought the whole day, but the Boers could not dislodge them.
They stopped firing in the evening, and then the Bakwains
retired on account of having no water. The above sixty are
not all men; women and children are among the slain. The
Boers were 600, and they had 700 natives with them. All the
corn is burned. Parties went out and burned Bangwaketse town,
and swept off all the cattle. Sebubi's cattle are all gone.
All the Bakhatla cattle gone. Neither Bangwaketse nor
Bakhatla fired a shot. All the corn burned of the whole three
tribes. Everything edible is taken from them. How will they
live! They told Sechéle that the Queen had given off the land
to them, and henceforth they were the masters,--had abolished
chieftainship. Sir Harry Smith tried the same, and England
has paid two millions of money to catch one chief, and he is
still as free as the winds of heaven. How will it end? I
don't know, but I will tell you the beginning. There are two
parties of Boers gone to the Lake. These will to a dead
certainty be cut off. They amount to thirty-six men. Parties
are sent now in pursuit of them. The Bakwains will plunder
and murder the Boers without mercy, and by and by the Boers
will ask the English Government to assist them to put down
rebellion, and of this rebellion I shall have, of course, to
bear the blame. They often expressed a wish to get hold of
me. I wait here a little in order to get information when the
path is clear. Kind Providence detained me from falling into
the very thick of it. God will preserve me still. He has work
for me or He would have allowed me to go in just when the
Boers were there. We shall remove more easily now that we are
lightened of our furniture. They have taken away our sofa. I
never had a good rest on it. We had only got it ready when we
left. Well, they can't have taken away all the stones. We
shall have a seat in spite of them, and that, too, with a
merry heart which doeth good like a medicine. I wonder what
the Peace Society would do with these worthies. They are
Christians. The Dutch predicants baptise all their children,
and admit them to the Lord's Supper...."
Dr. Livingstone was not disposed to restrain his indignation and grief
over his losses. For one so patient and good, he had a very large vial
of indignation, and on occasion poured it out right heartily over all
injustice and cruelty. On no heads was it ever discharged more freely
than on these Transvaal Boers. He made a formal representation of his
losses both to the Cape and Home authorities, but never received a
farthing of compensation. The subsequent history of the Transvaal
Republic will convince many that Livingstone was not far from the truth
in his estimate of the character of the free and independent Boers.
But while perfectly sincere in his indignation over the treatment of the
natives and his own losses, his playful fancy could find a ludicrous
side for what concerned himself, and grim enjoyment in showing it to his
friends. "Think," he writes to his friend Watt, "think of a big fat
Boeress drinking coffee out of my kettle, and then throwing her tallowy
corporeity on my sofa, or keeping her needles in my wife's writing-desk!
Ugh! and then think of foolish John Bull paying so many thousands a year
for the suppression of the slave-trade, and allowing Commissioner Aven
to make treaties with Boers who carry on the slave-trade.... The Boers
are mad with rage against me because my people fought bravely. It was I,
they think, who taught them to shoot Boers. Fancy your reverend friend
teaching the young idea how to shoot Boers, and praying for a blessing
on the work of his hands!"
In the same spirit he writes to his friend Moore:
"I never knew I was so rich until I recounted up the
different articles that were taken away. They cannot be
replaced in this country under £300. Many things brought to
our establishment by my better-half were of considerable
value. Of all I am now lightened, and they want to ease me of
my head.... The Boers kill the blacks without compunction,
and without provocation, because they believe they have no
souls.... Viewing the dispensation apart from the extreme
wickedness of the Boers, it seemed a judgment on the blacks
for their rejection of the gospel. They have verily done
despite unto the Spirit of grace.... Their enmity was not
manifested to us, but to the gospel. I am grieved for them,
and still hope that the good seed will yet vegetate[36]."
[Footnote 36: This letter to Mr. Moore contains a trait of Livingstone,
very trifling in the occasion out of which it arose, but showing vividly
the nature of the man. He had promised to send Mr. Moore's little son
some curiosities, but had forgotten when his family went to England.
Being reminded of his promise in a postscript the little fellow had
added to a letter from his father, Livingstone is "overwhelmed with
shame and confusion of face." He feels he has disappointed the boy and
forgotten his promise. Again and again Livingstone returns to the
subject, and feels assured that his young friend would forgive him if he
knew how much he suffered for his fault. That in the midst of his own
overwhelming troubles he should feel so much for the disappointment of a
little heart in England, shows how terrible a thing it was to him to
cause needless pain, and how profoundly it distressed him to seem
forgetful of a promise. Years afterward he wrote that he had brought an
elephant's tail for Henry, but one of the men stole all the hairs and
sold them. He had still a tusk of a hippopotamus for him, and a tooth
for his brother, but he had brought no curiosities, for he could
scarcely get along himself.]
But while he could relax playfully at the thought of the desolation at
Kolobeng, he knew how to make it the occasion likewise of high resolves.
The Boers, as he wrote the Directors, were resolved to shut up the
interior. He was determined, with God's help, to open the country. Time
would show which would be most successful in resolution,--they or he. To
his brother-in-law he wrote that he would open a path through the
country, _or perish_.
As for the contest with the Boers, we may smile at their impotent wrath.
It is a singular fact, that while Sechéle still retains the position of
an independent chief, the republic of the Boers has passed away. It is
now part of the British Empire.
The country was so unsettled that for a long time Dr. Livingstone could
not get guides at Kuruman to go with him to Sebituane's. At length,
however, he succeeded, and leaving Kuruman finally about the end of
December, 1852, in company with George Fleming, Mr. Rutherfoord's
trader, he set out in a new direction, to the west of the old, in order
to give a wide berth to the Boers. Traveling rapidly he passed through
Sebituane's country, and in June, 1858, arrived at Linyanti, the capital
of the Makololo. He wrote to his wife that he had been very anxious to
go to Kolobeng and see with his own eyes the destruction wrought by the
savages. He had a great longing, too, to visit once more the grave of
Elizabeth, their infant daughter, but he heard that the Boers were in
the neighborhood, and were anxious to catch him, and he thought it best
not to go. Two years before, he had been at Linyanti with Mr. Oswell.
Many details of the new journey are given in the _Missionary Travels_,
which it is unnecessary to repeat, It may be enough to state that he
found the country flooded, and that on the way it was no unusual thing
for him to be wet all day, and to walk through swamps, and water three
or four feet deep. Trees, thorns, and reeds offered tremendous
resistance, and he and his people must have presented a pitiable sight
when forcing their way through reeds with cutting edges. "With our own
hands all raw and bloody, and knees through our trousers, we at length
emerged." It was a happy thought to tear his pocket-handkerchief into
two parts and tie them over his knees. "I remember," he says in his
Journal, referring to last year's journey, "the toil which our friend
Oswell endured on our account. He never spared himself." It is not to be
supposed that his guides were happy in such a march; it required his
tact stretched to its very utmost to prevent them from turning back. "At
the Malopo," he writes to his wife, "there were other dangers besides.
When walking before the wagon in the morning twilight, I observed a
lioness about fifty yards from me, in the squatting way they walk when
going to spring. She was followed by a very large lion, but seeing the
wagon, she turned back." Though he escaped fever at first, he had
repeated attacks afterward, and had to be constantly using remedies
against it. The unhealthiness of the region to Europeans forced itself
painfully on his attention, and made him wonder in what way God would
bring the light of the gospel to the poor inhabitants. As a physician
his mind was much occupied with the nature of the disease, and the way
to cure it. If only he could discover a remedy for that scourge of
Africa, what an invaluable boon would he confer on its
much-afflicted people!
"I would like," he says in his Journal, "to devote a portion
of my life to the discovery of a remedy for that terrible
disease, the African fever[37]. I would go into the parts
where it prevails most, and try to discover if the natives
have a remedy for it. I must make many inquiries of the river
people in this quarter. What an unspeakable mercy it is to be
permitted to engage in this most holy and honorable work!
What an infinity of lots in the world are poor, miserable,
and degraded compared with mine! I might have been a common
soldier, a day-laborer, a factory operative, a mechanic,
instead of a missionary. If my faculties had been left to run
riot or to waste as those of so many young men, I should now
have been used up, a dotard, as many of my school-fellows
are. I am respected by the natives, their kind expressions
often make me ashamed, and they are sincere. So much
deference and favor manifested without any effort on my part
to secure it comes from the Author of every good gift. I
acknowledge the mercies of the great God with devout and
reverential gratitude."
[Footnote 37: Livingstone's Remedy for African fever. See Appendix No.
II.]
Dr. Livingstone had declined a considerate proposal that another
missionary should accompany him, and deliberately resolved to go this
great journey alone. He knew, in fact, that except Mr. Moffat, who was
busy with his translation of the Bible, no other missionary would go
with him[38]. But in the absence of all to whom he could unburden his
spirit, we find him more freely than usual pouring out his feelings in
his Journal, and it is but an act of justice to himself that it should
be made known how his thoughts were running, with so bold and difficult
an undertaking before him:
[Footnote 38: Dr. Moffat informs us that Livingstone's desire for his
company was most intense, and that he pressed him in such a way as would
have been irresistible, had his going been possible. But for his
employment in translating, Dr. Moffat would have gone with all
his heart.]
_28th September,_ 1852.--Am I on my way to die in Sebituane's
country? Have I seen the end of my wife and children? The
breaking up of all my connections with earth, leaving this
fair and beautiful world, and knowing so little of it? I am
only learning the alphabet of it yet, and entering on an
untried state of existence. Following Him who has entered in
before me into the cloud, the veil, the Hades, is a serious
prospect. Do we begin again in our new existence to learn
much by experience, or have we full powers? My soul, whither
wilt thou emigrate? Where wilt thou lodge the first night
after leaving this body? Will an angel soothe thy fluttering,
for sadly flurried wilt thou be in entering upon eternity?
Oh! if Jesus speak one word of peace, that will establish in
thy breast an everlasting calm! O Jesus, fill me with Thy
love now, and I beseech Thee, accept me, and use me a little
for Thy glory. I have done nothing for Thee yet, and I would
like to do something. O do, do, I beseech Thee, accept me and
my service, and take Thou all the glory...."
"_23d January_, 1853,--I think much of my poor children...."
"_4th February_, 1853.--I am spared in health, while all the
company have been attacked by the fever. If God has accepted
my service, then my life is charmed till my work is done. And
though I pass through many dangers unscathed while working
the work given me to do, when that is finished, some simple
thing will give me my quietus. Death is a glorious event to
one going to Jesus. Whither does the soul wing its way? What
does it see first? There is something sublime in passing into
the second stage of our immortal lives if washed from our
sins. But oh! to be consigned to ponder over all our sins
with memories excited, every scene of our lives held up as in
a mirror before our eyes, and we looking at them and waiting
for the day of judgment!"
"_17th February_.--It is not the encountering of difficulties
and dangers in obedience to the promptings of the inward
spiritual life, which constitutes tempting of God and
Providence; but the acting without faith, proceeding on our
own errands with no previous convictions of duty, and no
prayer for aid and direction."
"_22d May_.--I will place no value on anything I have or may
possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. If
anything will advance the interests of that kingdom, it shall
be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping of it I
shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my
hopes in time and eternity. May grace and strength sufficient
to enable me to adhere faithfully to this resolution be
imparted to me, so that in truth, not in name only, all my
interests and those of my children may be identified with
his cause.... I will try and remember always to approach God
in secret with as much reverence in speech, posture, and
behavior as in public. Help me, Thou who knowest my frame and
pitiest as a father his children."
When Livingstone reached the Makololo, a change had taken place in the
government of the tribe. Ma-mochisane, the daughter of Sebituane, had
not been happy in her chiefdom, and had found it difficult to get along
with the number of husbands whom her dignity as chief required her to
maintain. She had given over the government to her brother Sekelétu, a
youth of eighteen, who was generally recognized, though not without some
reluctance, by his brother, Mpepe. Livingstone could not have foreseen
how Sekelétu would receive him, but to his great relief and satisfaction
he found him actuated by the most kindly feelings. He found him, boy as
he was, full of vague expectations of benefits, marvelous and
miraculous, which the missionaries were to bring. It was Livingstone's
first work to disabuse his mind of these expectations, and let him
understand that his supreme object was to teach them the way of
salvation through Jesus Christ. To a certain extent Sekelétu was
interested in this:
"He asked many sensible questions about the system of
Christianity in connection with the putting away of wives.
They are always furnished with objections sooner than with
the information. I commended him for asking me, and will
begin a course of instruction to-morrow. He fears that
learning to read will change his heart, and make him put away
his wives. Much depends on his decision. May God influence
his heart to decide aright!"
Two days after Livingstone says in his Journal:
"_1st June_.--The chief presented eight large and three small
tusks this morning. I told him and his people I would rather
see them trading than giving them to me. They replied that
they would get trade with George Fleming, and that, too, as
soon as he was well; but these they gave to their father, and
they were just as any other present. They asked after the
gun-medicine, believing that now my heart would be warm
enough to tell them anything, but I could not tell them a
lie. I offered to show Sekelétu how to shoot, and that was
all the medicine I knew. I felt as if I should have been more
pleased had George been amassing ivory than I. Yet this may
be an indispensable step in the progress toward opening the
west. I must have funds; and here they come pouring in. It
would be impossible to overlook his providence who has
touched their hearts. I have used no undue influence. Indeed
I have used none directly for the purpose Kindness shown has
been appreciated here, while much greater kindness shown to
tribes in the south has resulted in a belief we missionaries
must be fools. I do thank my God sincerely for his favor, and
my hearty prayer is that He may continue it, and make
whatever use He pleases of me, and may He have mercy on this
people!"
Dr. Livingstone was careful to guard against the supposition that he
allowed Sekelétu to enrich him without recompense, and in his Journal he
sets down a list of the various articles presented by himself to the
chief, including three goats, some fowls, powder, wire, flints,
percussion-caps, an umbrella and a hat, the value of the whole being
£31, 16s. When Sekelétu knew Dr. Livingstone's plans, he undertook that
he should be provided with all requisites for his journey. But he was
most anxious to retain him, and for some time would not let him go.
Livingstone had fascinated him. Sekelétu said that he had found a new
father. And Livingstone pondered the possibility of establishing a
station here. But the fever, the fever! could he bring his family? He
must pass on and look for a healthier spot. His desire was to proceed to
the country of the Barotse. At length, on the 16th June, Sekelétu gives
his answer:
"The chief has acceded to my request to proceed to Barotse
and see the country. I told him my heart was sore, because
having left my family to explore his land, and, if possible,
find a suitable location for a mission, I could not succeed,
because detained by him here. He says he will take me with
him. He does not like to part with me at all. He is obliged
to consult with those who gave their opinion against my
leaving. But it is certain I am permitted to go. Thanks be to
God for influencing their hearts!"
Before we set out with the chief on this journey, it will be well to
give a few extracts from Livingstone's Journal, showing how unwearied
were his efforts to teach the people:
"_Banks of Chobe, Sunday, May 15th_.--Preached twice to about
sixty people. Very attentive. It is only divine power which
can enlighted dark minds as these.... The people seem to
receive ideas on divine subjects slowly. They listen, but
never suppose that the truths must become embodied in actual
life. They will wait until the chief becomes a Christian, and
if he believes, then they refuse to follow,--as was the case
among the Bakwains. Procrastination seems as powerful an
instrument of deception here as elsewhere."
"_Sunday, 12th June_.--A good and very attentive audience. We
introduce entirely new motives, and were these not perfectly
adapted for the human mind and heart by their divine Author,
we should have no success."
"_Sunday, 19th June_.--A good and attentive audience, but
immediately after the service I went to see a sick man, and
when I returned toward the Kotla, I found the chief had
retired into a hut to drink beer; and, as the custom is,
about forty men were standing singing to him, or, in other
words, begging beer by that means. A minister who had not
seen so much pioneer service as I have done would have been
shocked to see so little effect produced by an earnest
discourse concerning the future judgment, but time must be
given to allow the truth to sink into the dark mind, and
produce its effect. The earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord--that is enough. We can
afford to work in faith, for Omnipotence is pledged to
fulfill the promise. The great mountains become a plain
before the Almighty arm. The poor Bushman, the most degraded
of all Adam's family, shall see his glory, and the dwellers
in the wilderness shall bow before Him. The obstacles to the
coming of the Kingdom are mighty, but come it will for
all that;
"Then let us pray that come it may,
As come, it will for a' that,
That man to man the world o'er
Shall brothers be for a' that.'
"The hard and cold unbelief which distinguished the last
century, and which is still aped by would-be philosophers in
the present, would sneer at our faith, and call it
superstition, enthusiasm, etc. But were we believers in human
progress and no more, there must be a glorious future for our
world. Our dreams must come true, even though they are no
more than dreams. The world is rolling on to the golden
age.... Discoveries and Inventions are cumulative. Another
century must present a totally different aspect from the
present. And when we view the state of the world and its
advancing energies, in the light afforded by childlike, or
call it childish, faith, we see the earth filling with the
knowledge of the glory of God,--ay, all nations seeing his
glory and bowing before Him whose right it is to reign. Our
work and its fruits are cumulative. We work toward another
state of things. Future missionaries will be rewarded by
conversions for every sermon. We are their pioneers and
helpers. Let them not forget the watchmen of the night--us,
who worked when all was gloom, and no evidence of success in
the way of conversion cheered our paths. They will doubtless
have more light than we, but we served our Master earnestly,
and proclaimed the same gospel as they will do."
Of the services which Livingstone held with the people, we have the
following picture;
"When I stand up, all the women and children draw near, and,
having ordered silence, I explain the plan of salvation, the
goodness of God in sending his Son to die, the confirmation
of his mission by miracles, the last judgment or future
state, the evil of sin, God's commands respecting it, etc.;
always choosing one subject only for an address, and taking
care to make it short and plain, and applicable to them. This
address is listened to with great attention by most of the
audience. A short prayer concludes the service, all kneeling
down, and remaining so till told to rise. At first we have to
enjoin on the women who have children to remain sitting, for
when they kneel, they squeeze their children, and a
simultaneous skirl is set up by the whole troop of
youngsters, who make the prayer inaudible."
When Livingstone and Sekelétu had gone about sixty miles on the way to
the Barotse, they encountered Mpepe, Sekelétu's half-brother and secret
rival. It turned out that Mpepe had a secret plan for killing Sekelétu,
and that three times on the day of their meeting that plan was
frustrated by apparently accidental causes. On one of these occasions,
Livingstone, by covering Sekelétu, prevented him from being speared.
Mpepe's treachery becoming known, he was arrested by Sekelétu's people,
and promptly put to death. The episode was not agreeable, but it
illustrated savage life. It turned out that Mpepe favored the
slave-trade, and was closely engaged with certain Portuguese traders in
intrigues for establishing and extending it. Had Sekelétu been killed,
Livingstone's enterprise would certainly have been put an end to, and
very probably likewise Livingstone himself.
The party, numbering about one hundred and sixty, proceeded up the
beautiful river which on his former visit Livingstone had first known as
the Seshéke, but which was called by the Barotse the Liambai or
Leeambye. The term means "the large river," and Luambeji, Luambesi,
Ambezi, Yimbezi, and Zambezi are names applied to it at different parts
of its course. In the progress of their journey they came to the town of
the father of Mpepe, where, most unexpectedly, Livingstone encountered a
horrible scene. Mpepe's father and another headman were known to have
favored the plan for the murder of Sekelétu, and were therefore objects
of fear to the latter. When all were met, and Mpepe's father was
questioned why he did not stop his son's proceedings, Sekelétu suddenly
sprang to his feet and gave the two men into custody. All had been
planned beforehand. Forthwith they were led away, surrounded by
Sekelétu's warriors, all dream of opposition on their part being as
useless as interference would have been on Livingstone's. Before his
eyes he saw them hewn to; pieces with axes, and cast into the river to
be devoured by the alligators. Within two hours of their arrival the
whole party had left the scene of this shocking tragedy, Livingstone
being so horrified that he could not remain. He did his best to show the
sin of blood-guiltiness, and bring before the people the scene of the
Last Judgment, which was the only thing that seemed to make any
impression.
Farther on his way he had an interview with Ma-mochisane, the daughter
of Sebituane who had resigned in favor of Sekelétu. He was the first
white man she had ever seen. The interview was pleasing and not without
touches of womanly character; the poor woman had felt an _embarras de
richesses_ in the matter of husbands, and was very uncomfortable when
married women complained of her taking their spouses from them. Her soul
recoiled from the business; she wished to have a husband of her own and
to be like other women.
So anxious was Livingstone to find a healthy locality, that, leaving
Sekelétu, he proceeded to the farthest limit of the Barotse country, but
no healthy place could be found. It is plain, however, that in spite of
all risk, and much as he suffered from the fever, he was planning, if no
better place could be found, to return himself to Linyanti and be the
Makololo missionary. Not just immediately, however. Having failed in the
first object of his journey--to find a healthy locality--he was resolved
to follow out the second, and endeavor to discover a highway to the sea.
First he would try the west coast, and the point for which he would make
was St. Paul de Loanda. He might have found a nearer way, but a
Portuguese trader whom he had met, and from whom he had received
kindness, was going by that route to St. Philip de Benguela. The trader
was implicated in the slave-trade, and Livingstone knew what a
disadvantage it would be either to accompany or to follow him. He
therefore returned to Linyanti; and there began preparations for the
journey to Loanda on the coast.
During the time thus spent in the Barotse country, Livingstone saw
heathenism in its most unadulterated form. It was a painful, loathsome,
and horrible spectacle. His views of the Fall and of the corruption of
human nature were certainly not lightened by the sight. In his Journal
he is constantly letting fall expressions of weariness at the noise, the
excitement, the wild savage dancing, the heartless cruelty, the utter
disregard of feelings, the destruction of children, the drudgery of the
old people, the atrocious murders with which he was in contact.
Occasionally he would think of other scenes of travel; if a friend, for
example, were going to Palestine, he would say how gladly he would kiss
the dust that had been trod by the Man of Sorrows. One day a poor girl
comes hungry and naked to the wagons, and is relieved from time to time;
then disappears to die in the woods of starvation or be torn in pieces
by the hyenas. Another day, as he is preaching, a boy, walking along
with his mother, is suddenly seized by a man, utters a shriek as if his
heart had burst, and becomes, as Livingstone finds, a hopeless slave.
Another time, the sickening sight is a line of slaves attached by a
chain. That chain haunts and harrows him.
Amid all his difficulties he patiently pursued his work as missionary.
Twice every Sunday he preached, usually to good audiences, the number
rising on occasions so high as a thousand. It was a great work to sow
the good seed so widely, where no Christian man had ever been,
proclaiming every Lord's Day to fresh ears the message of Divine love.
Sometimes he was in great hopes that a true impression had been made.
But usually, whenever the service was over, the wild savage dance with
all its demon noises succeeded, and the missionary could but look on and
sigh. So ready was he for labor that when he could get any willing to
learn, he commenced teaching them the alphabet. But he was continually
met by the notion that his religion was a religion of medicines, and
that all the good it could do was by charms. Intellectual culture seemed
indispensable to dissipate this inveterate superstition regarding
Christian influence.
A few extracts from his Journal in the Barotse country will more vividly
exhibit his state of mind:
"_27th August_, 1853.--The more intimately I become
acquainted with barbarians, the more disgusting does
heathenism become. It is inconceivably vile. They are always
boasting of their fierceness, yet dare not visit another
tribe for fear of being killed. They never visit anywhere but
for the purpose of plunder and oppression. They never go
anywhere but with a club or spear in hand. It is lamentable
to see those who might be children of God, dwelling in peace
and love, so utterly the children of the devil, dwelling in
fear and continual irritation. They bestow honors and
flattering titles on me in confusing profusion. All from the
least to the greatest call me Father, Lord, etc., and bestow
food without recompense, out of pure kindness. They need a
healer. May God enable me to be such to them....
"_31st August_.--The slave-trade seems pushed into the very
centre of the continent from both sides. It must be
profitable....
"_September 25, Sunday_.--A quiet audience to-day. The seed
being sown, the least of all seeds now, but it will grow a
mighty tree. It is as it were a small stone cut out of a
mountain, but it will fill the whole earth. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Surely if God can bear with hardened
impenitent sinners for thirty, forty, or fifty years, waiting
to be gracious, we may take it for granted that his is the
best way. He could destroy his enemies, but He waits to be
gracious. To become irritated with their stubbornness and
hardness of heart is ungodlike....
"_13th October_.--Missionaries ought to cultivate a taste for
the beautiful. We are necessarily compelled to contemplate
much moral impurity and degradation. We are so often doomed
to disappointment. We are apt to become either callous or
melancholy, or, if preserved from these, the constant strain
on the sensibilities is likely to injure the bodily health.
On this account it seems necessary to cultivate that faculty
for the gratification of which God has made such universal
provision. See the green earth and blue sky, the lofty
mountain and the verdant valley, the glorious orbs of day and
night, and the starry canopy with all their celestial
splendor, the graceful flowers so chaste in form and perfect
in coloring. The various forms of animated life present to
him whose heart is at peace with God through the blood of his
Son an indescribable charm. He sees in the calm beauties of
nature such abundant provision for the welfare of humanity
and animate existence. There appears on the quiet repose of
earth's scenery the benignant smile of a Father's love. The
sciences exhibit such wonderful intelligence and design in
all their various ramifications, some time ought to be
devoted to them before engaging in missionary work. The heart
may often be cheered by observing the operation of an
ever-present intelligence, and we may feel that we are
leaning on his bosom while living in a world clothed in
beauty, and robed with the glorious perfections of its maker
and preserver. We must feel that there is a Governor among
the nations who will bring all his plans with respect to our
human family to a glorious consummation. He who stays his
mind on his ever-present, ever-energetic God, will not fret
himself because of evil-doers. He that believeth shall not
make haste."
"_26th October_.--I have not yet met with a beautiful woman
among the black people, and I have seen many thousands in a
great variety of tribes. I have seen a few who might be
called passable, but none at all to be compared to what one
may meet among English servant-girls. Some beauties are said
to be found among the Caffres, but among the people I have
seen I cannot conceive of any European being captivated with
them. The whole of my experience goes toward proving that
civilization alone produces beauty, and exposure to the
weather and other vicissitudes tend to the production of
deformation and ugliness....
"_28th October_.--The conduct of the people whom we have
brought from Kuruman shows that no amount of preaching or
instruction will insure real piety.... The old superstitions
cannot be driven out of their minds by faith implanted by
preaching. They have not vanished in either England or
Scotland yet, after the lapse of centuries of preaching.
Kuruman, the entire population of which amounted in 1853 to
638 souls, enjoys and has enjoyed the labors of at least two
missionaries,--four sermons, two prayer-meetings, infant
schools, adult schools, sewing schools, classes, books, etc.,
and the amount of visible success is very gratifying, a
remarkable change indeed from the former state of these
people. Yet the dregs of heathenism still cleave fast to the
minds of the majority. They have settled deep down into their
souls, and one century will not be sufficient to elevate them
to the rank of Christians in Britain. The double influence of
the spirit of commerce and the gospel of Christ has given an
impulse to the civilization of men. The circulation of ideas
and commodities over the face of the earth, and the discovery
of the gold regions, have given enhanced rapidity to commerce
in other countries, and the diffusion of knowledge. But what
for Africa? God will do something else for it; something just
as wonderful and unexpected as the discovery of gold."
It needs not to be said that his thoughts were very often with his wife
and children. A tender letter to the four little ones shows that though
some of them might be beginning to forget him, their names were written
imperishably on his heart:
"_Sekelétu's Town, Linyanti, 2d October_.--MY DEAR ROBERT,
AGNES, AND THOMAS AND OSWELL,--Here is another little letter
for you all. I should like to see you much more than write to
you, and speak with my tongue rather than with my pen; but we
are far from each other--very, very far. Here are Seipone,
and Meriye and others who saw you as the first white children
they ever looked at. Meriye came the other day and brought a
round basket for Nannie. She made it of the leaves of the
palmyra. Others put me in mind of you all by calling me
Rananee, and Rarobert, and there is a little Thomas in the
town, and when I think of you I remember, though I am far
off, Jesus, our good and gracious Jesus, is ever near both
you and me, and then I pray to Him to bless you and make
you good.
"He is ever near. Remember this if you feel angry or naughty.
Jesus is near you, and sees you, and He is so good and kind.
When He was among men, those who heard Him speak said, 'Never
man spake like this man,' and we now say, 'Never did man love
like Him.' You see little Zouga is carried on mamma's bosom.
You are taken care of by Jesus with as much care as mamma
takes of Zouga. He is always watching you and keeping you in
safety. It is very bad to sin, to do any naughty things, or
speak angry or naughty words before Him.
"My dear children, take Him as your Guide, your Helper, your
Friend, and Saviour through life. Whatever you are troubled
about ask Him to keep you. Our God is good. We thank Him that
we have such a Saviour and Friend as He is. Now you are
little, but you will not always be so, hence you must learn
to read and write and work. All clever men can both read and
write, and Jesus needs clever men to do his work. Would you
not like to work for Him among men? Jesus is wishing to send
his gospel to all nations, and He needs clever men to do
this. Would you like to serve Him? Well, you must learn now,
and not get tired learning. After some time you will like
learning better than playing, but you must play, too, in
order to make your bodies strong and be able to serve Jesus.
"I am glad to hear that you go to the academy. I hope you are
learning fast. Don't speak Scotch. It is not so pretty as
English. Is the Tau learning to read with mamma? I hope you
are all kind to mamma. I saw a poor woman in a chain with
many others, up at the Barotse. She had a little child, and
both she and her child were very thin. See how kind Jesus was
to you. No one can put you in chains unless you become bad.
If, however, you learn bad ways, beginning only by saying bad
words or doing little bad things, Satan will have you in the
chains of sin, and you will be hurried on in his bad ways
till you are put into the dreadful place which God hath
prepared for him and all who are like him. Pray to Jesus to
deliver you from sin, give you new hearts, and make you his
children. Kiss Zouga, mamma, and each other for me.--Your
ever affectionate father,
"D. LIVINGSTON."
A letter to his father and other relations at Hamilton, 30th September,
1853, is of a somewhat apologetic and explanatory cast. Some of the
friends had the notion that he should have settled somewhere,
"preaching the simple gospel," and converting people by every sermon:
"You see what they make of the gospel, and my conversation on
it, in which my inmost Heart yearned for their conversion.
Many now think Jesus and Sebituane very much the same sort of
person. I was prevented by fever and other matters from at
once following up the glorious object of this journey: viz.,
while preaching the gospel beyond every other man's line of
things made ready to our hands, to discover a healthy
location for a mission, and I determined to improve the time
by teaching to read. This produced profound deliberation and
lengthened palavers, and at length the chief told me that he
feared learning to read would change his heart and make him
content with one wife like Sechéle. He has four. It was in
vain I urged that the change contemplated made the affair as
voluntary as if he would now change his mind from four to
thirty, as his father had. He could not realize the change
that would give relish to any other system than the present.
He felt as the man who is mentioned by Serles as saying he
would not like to go to heaven to be employed for ever
singing and praising on a bare cloud without anything to eat
or drink....
"The conversion of a few, however valuable their souls may
be, cannot be put into the scale against the knowledge of the
truth spread over the whole country. In this I do and will
exult. As in India, we are doomed to perpetual
disappointment; but the knowledge of Christ spreads over the
masses. We are like voices crying in the wilderness. We
prepare the way for a glorious future in which missionaries
telling the same tale of love will convert by every sermon. I
am trying now to establish the Lord's kingdom in a region
wider by far than Scotland. Fever seems to forbid; but I
shall work for the glory of Christ's kingdom--fever or no
fever. All the intelligent men who direct our society and
understand the nature of my movements support me warmly. A
few, I understand, in Africa, in writing home, have styled my
efforts as 'wanderings.' The very word contains a lie coiled
like a serpent in its bosom. It means traveling without an
object, or uselessly. I am now performing the duty of writing
you. If this were termed 'dawdling,' it would be as true as
the other.... I have actually seen letters to the Directors
in which I am gravely charged with holding the views of the
Plymouth Brethren, So very sure am I that I am in the path
which God's Providence has pointed out, as that by which
Christ's kingdom is to be promoted, that if the Society
should object, I would consider it my duty to withdraw
from it....
_"P.S._--My throat became well during the long silence of
traveling across the desert. It plagues again now that I am
preaching in a moist climate."
Dr. Livingstone now began his preparations for the journey from
Linyanti to Loanda. Sekelétu was kind and generous. The road was
impracticable for wagons, and the native trader, George Fleming,
returned to Kuruman, The Kuruman guides had not done well, so that
Livingstone resolved to send them back, and to get Makololo men instead.
Here is the record of his last Sunday at Linyanti:
"_6th Nov., 1853_.--Large audience. Kuruman people don't
attend. If it is a fashion to be church-going, many are drawn
into its observance. But placed in other circumstances, the
true character comes out. This is the case with many
Scotchmen. May God so imbue my mind with the spirit of
Christianity that in all circumstances I may show my
Christian character! Had a long conversation with Motlube,
chiefly on a charm for defending the town or for gun
medicine. They think I know it but will not impart the secret
to them. I used every form of expression to undeceive him,
but to little purpose. Their belief in medicine which will
enable them to shoot well is very strong, and simple trust in
an unseen Saviour to defend them against such enemies as the
Matebele is too simple for them. I asked if a little charcoal
sewed up in a bag were a more feasible protector than He who
made all things, and told them that one day they would laugh
heartily at their own follies in bothering me so much for gun
medicine. A man who has never had to do with a raw heathen
tribe has yet to learn the Missionary A B C."
On the 8th he writes:
"Our intentions are to go up the Leeba till we reach the
falls, then send back the canoe and proceed in the country
beyond as best we can. Matiamvo is far beyond, but the
Cassantse (probably Cassange) live on the west of the river.
May God in mercy permit me to do something for the cause of
Christ in these dark places of the earth! May He accept my
children for his service, and sanctify them for it! My
blessing on my wife. May God comfort her! If my watch comes
back after I am cut off, it belongs to Agnes. If my sextant,
it is Robert's. The Paris medal to Thomas. Double-barreled
gun to Zouga. Be a Father to the fatherless, and a Husband to
the widow, for Jesus' sake."
The probability of his falling was full in his view. But the thought was
ever in his mind, and ever finding expression in letters both to the
Missionary and the Geographical Societies, and to all his
friends,--"Can the love of Christ not carry the missionary where the
slave-trade carries the trader?" His wagon and goods were left with
Sekelétu, and also the Journal from which these extracts are taken[39].
It was well for him that his conviction of duty was clear as noonday. A
year after, he wrote to his father-in-law:
[Footnote 39: This Journal is mentioned in the _Missionary Travels_ as
having been lost (p. 229). It was afterward recovered. It contains,
among other things, some important notes on Natural History.]
I had fully made up my mind as to the path of duty before
starting. I wrote to my brother-in-law, Robert Moffat: 'I
shall open up a path into the interior, or perish.' I never
have had the shadow of a shade of doubt as to the propriety
of my course, and wish only that my exertions may be honored
so far that the gospel may be preached and believed in all
this dark region."
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA.
A.D. 1853-1854.
Difficulties and hardships of journey--His traveling kit--Four
books--His Journal--Mode of traveling--Beauty of country--Repulsiveness
of the people--Their religious belief--The negro--Preaching--The
magic-lantern--Loneliness of feeling--Slave-trade--Management of the
natives--Danger from Chiboque--from another chief--Livingstone ill of
fever--At the Quango--Attachment of followers--"The good time
coming"--Portuguese settlements--Great kindness of the
Portuguese--Arrives at Loanda--Received by Mr. Gabriel--His great
friendship--No letters--News through Mr. Gabriel--Livingstone becomes
aquainted with naval officers--Resolves to go back to Linyanti and make
for East Coast--Letter to his wife--Correspondence with Mr.
Maclear--Accuracy of his observations--Sir John Herschel--Geographical
Society award their gold metal--Remarks of Lord Ellesmere.
The journey from Linyanti to Loanda occupied from the 11th November,
1853, to 31st May, 1854. It was in many ways the most difficult and
dangerous that Livingstone had yet performed, and it drew out in a very
wonderful manner the rare combination of qualities that fitted him for
his work. The route had never been traversed, so far as any trustworthy
tradition went, by any European. With the exception of a few of
Sekelétu's tusks, the oxen needed for carrying, and a trifling amount of
coffee, cloth, beads, etc., Livingstone had neither stores of food for
his party, nor presents with which to propitiate the countless tribes of
rapacious and suspicious savages that lined his path. The Barotse men
who accompanied him, usually called the "Makololo," though on the whole
faithful and patient, "the best that ever accompanied me," were a burden
in one sense, as much as a help in another; chicken-hearted, ready to
succumb to every trouble, and to be cowed by any chief that wore a
threatening face. Worse if possible, Livingstone himself was in wretched
health. During this part of the journey he had constant attacks of
intermittent fever[40], accompanied in the latter stages of the road
with dysentery of the most distressing kind. In the intervals of fever
he was often depressed alike in body and in mind. Often the party were
destitute of food of any sort, and never had they food suitable for a
fever-stricken invalid. The vexations he encountered were of no common
kind: at starting, the greater part of his medicines was stolen, much
though he needed them; in the course of the journey, his pontoon was
left behind; at one time, while he was under the influence of fever, his
riding-ox threw him, and he fell heavily on his head; at another, while
crossing a river, the ox tossed him into the water; the heavy rains, and
the necessity of wading through streams three or four times a day, kept
him almost constantly wet; and occasionally, to vary the annoyance,
mosquitos would assail him as fiercely as if they had been waging a war
of extermination. The most critical moments of peril, demanding the
utmost coolness and most dauntless courage, would sometimes occur during
the stage of depression after fever; it was then he had to extricate
himself from savage warriors, who vowed that he must go back, unless he
gave them an ox, a gun, or a man. The ox he could ill spare, the gun not
at all, and as for giving the last--a man--to make a slave of, he would
sooner die. At the best, he was a poor ragged skeleton when he reached
those who had hearts to feel for him and hands to help him. Had he not
been a prodigy of patience, faith, and courage, had he not known where
to find help in all time of his tribulation, he would never have reached
the haunts of civilized men.
[Footnote 40: The number of attacks was thirty-one.]
His traveling-kit was reduced to the smallest possible ilk; that he
minded little, but he was vexed to be able to take so few books. A few
days after setting out, he writes in his private Journal;
"I feel the want of books in this journey more than anything
else. A Sichuana Pentateuch, a lined journal, Thomson's
Tables, a Nautical Almanac, and a Bible, constitute my stock.
The last constitutes my chief resource; but the want of other
mental pabulum is felt severely. There is little to interest
in the conversation of the people. Loud disputes often about
the women, and angry altercations in which the same string of
abuse is used, are more frequent than anything else."
The "lined journal," of which mention is made here, was probably the
most wonderful thing of the kind ever taken on such a journey. It is a
strongly bound quarto volume of more then 800 pages, with a lock and
key. The writing is so neat and clear that it might almost be taken for
lithograph. Occasionally there is a page with letters beginning to
sprawl, as if one of those times had come when he tells us that he-could
neither think nor speak, nor tell any one's name--possibly not even his
own, if he had been asked it. He used to jot his observations on little
note-books, and extend them when detained by rain or other causes.
The journal differs in some material respects from the printed record of
this journey. It is much more explicit in setting forth the bad
treatment he often received. When he spoke of these things to the
public, he made constant use of the mantle of charity, and the record of
many a bad deed and many a bad character is toned down. Naturally, too,
the journal is more explicit on the subject of his own troubles, and
more free in recording the play of his feelings. It does not hide the
communings of his heart with his heavenly Father. It is built up in a
random-rubble style; here a solemn prayer, in the next line a note of
lunar observations; then a dissertation on the habits of the
hippopotamus. Notes bearing on the character, the superstitions, and the
feelings of the natives are of frequent occurrence. The explanation is,
that Livingstone put down everything as it came, reserving the arranging
and digesting of the whole to a future time. The extremely hurried
manner in which he was obliged to write his _Missionary Travels_
prevented him from fulfilling all his plan, and compelled him to content
himself with giving to the public then what could be put most readily
together. There are indications that he contemplated in the end a much
more thorough use of his materials. It is not to be supposed that his
published volumes contained all that he deemed worthy of publication, or
that a censure is due to those who reproduce some portions which he
passed over. As to the neat and finished form in which the Journal
exists, it was one of the many fruits of a strong habit of orderliness
and self-respect which he had begun to learn at the hand of his mother,
and which he practiced all his life. Even in the matter of personal
cleanliness and dress he was uniformly most attentive in his wanderings
among savages. "I feel certain," he said, "that the lessons of
cleanliness rigidly instilled by my mother in childhood helped to
maintain that respect which these people entertain for European ways."
The course of the journey was first along the river Zambesi, as he had
gone before with Sekelétu, to its junction with the Leeba, then along
the Leeba to the country of Lobale on the left and Londa on the right.
Then, leaving the canoes, he traveled on oxback first N.N.W. and then W.
till he reached St. Paul de Loanda on the coast. His Journal, like the
published volume, is full of observations on the beauty and wonderful
capacity and productiveness of the country through which he passed after
leaving the river. Instinctively he would compare it with Scotland. A
beautiful valley reminds him of his native vale of Clyde, seen from the
spot where Mary Queen of Scots saw the battle of Langside; only the
Scottish scene is but a miniature of the much greater and richer
landscape before him. At the sight of the mountains he would feel his
Highland blood rushing through him, banishing all thoughts of fever and
fatigue. If only the blessings of the gospel could be spread among the
people, what a glorious land it would become! But alas for the people!
In most cases they were outwardly very repulsive. Never seen without a
spear or a club in their hands, the men seemed only to delight in
plunder and slaughter, and yet they were utter cowards. Their mouths
were full of cursing and bitterness. The execrations they poured on each
other were incredible. In very wantonness, when they met they would pelt
each other with curses, and then perhaps burst into a fit of laughter.
The women, like the men, went about in almost total nudity, and seemed
to know no shame. So reckless were the chiefs of human life, that a man
might be put to death for a single distasteful word; yet sometimes there
were exhibitions of very tender feeling. The headman of a village once
showed him, with much apparent feeling, the burnt house of a child of
his, adding,--"She perished in it, and we have all removed from our own
huts and built here round her, in order to weep over her grave." From
some of the people he received great kindness; others were quite
different. Their character, in short, was a riddle, and would need to be
studied more. But the prevalent aspect of things was both distressing
and depressing. If he had thought of it continually, he would have
become the victim of melancholy. It was a characteristic of his large
and buoyant nature, that, besides having the resource of spiritual
thought, he was able to make use of another divine corrective to such a
tendency, to find delightful recreation in science, and especially in
natural history, and by this means turn the mind away for a time from
the dark scenes of man's depravity.
The people all seemed to recognize a Supreme Being; but it was only
occasionally, in times of distress, that they paid Him homage. They had
no love for Him like that of Christians for Jesus--only terror. Some of
them, who were true negroes, had images, simple but grotesque. Their
strongest belief was in the power of medicines acting as charms. They
fully recognized the existence of the soul after death. Some of them
believed in the metamorphosis of certain persons into alligators or
hippopotamuses, or into lions. This belief could not be shaken by any
arguments--at least on the part of man. The negroes proper interested
him greatly; they were numerous, prolific, and could not be extirpated.
He almost regretted that Mr. Moffat had translated the Bible into
Sichuana. That language might die out; but the negro might sing, "Men
may come and men may go, but I go on for ever."
The incessant attacks of fever from which Livingstone suffered in this
journey, the continual rain occurring at that season of the year, the
return of the affection of the throat for which he had got his uvula
excised, and the difficulty of speaking to tribes using different
dialects, prevented him from, holding his Sunday services as regularly
as before. Such entries in his Journal as the following are but
too frequent:
"_Sunday, 19th_.--Sick all Sunday and unable to move. Several
of the people were ill too, so that I could do nothing but
roll from side to side in my miserable little tent, in which,
with all the shade we could give it, the thermometer stood
upward of 90°."
But though little able to preach, Livingstone made the most of an
apparatus which in some degree compensated his lack of speech--a
magic-lantern which his friend, a former fellow-traveler, Mr. Murray,
had given him. The pictures of Abraham offering up Isaac, and other
Bible scenes, enabled him to convey important truths in a way that
attracted the people. It was, he says, the only service he was ever
asked to repeat. The only uncomfortable feeling it raised was on the
part of those who stood on the side where the slides were drawn out.
They were terrified lest the figures, as they passed along, should take
possession of them, entering like spirits into their bodies!
The loneliness of feeling engendered by the absence of all human
sympathy was trying. "Amidst all the beauty and loveliness with which I
am surrounded, there is still a feeling of want in the soul,--as if
something more were needed to bathe the soul in bliss than the sight of
the perfection in working and goodness in planning of the great Father
of our spirits. I need to be purified--fitted for the eternal, to which
my soul stretches away, in ever returning longings. I need to be made
more like my blessed Saviour, to serve my God with all my powers. Look
upon me, Spirit of the living God, and supply all Thou seest lacking."
It was Livingstone's great joy to begin this long journey with a blessed
act of humanity, boldly summoning a trader to release a body of
captives, so that no fewer than eighteen souls were restored to freedom.
As he proceeded he obtained but too plain evidence of the extent to
which the slave traffic prevailed, uniformly finding that wherever
slavers had been, the natives were more difficult to deal with and more
exorbitant in their demands. Slaves in chains were sometimes met with--a
sight which some of his men had never beheld before.
Livingstone's successful management of the natives constituted the
crowning wonder of this journey. Usually the hearts of the chiefs were
wonderfully turned to him, so that they not only allowed him to pass on,
but supplied him with provisions. But there were some memorable
occasions on which he and his company appeared to be doomed. When he
passed through the Chiboque country, the provisions were absolutely
spent; there was no resource but to kill a riding-ox, a part of which,
according to custom, was sent to the chief. Next day was Sunday. After
service the chief sent an impudent message demanding much more valuable
presents. His people collected round Livingstone, brandishing their
weapons, and one young man all but brought down his sword on his head.
It seemed impossible to avoid a fight; yet Livingstone's management
prevailed--the threatened storm passed away.
Some days after, in passing through a forest in the dominions of another
chief, he and his people were in momentary expectation of an attack.
They went to the chiefs village and spoke to the man himself; and here,
on a Sunday, while ill of fever, Livingstone was able to effect a
temporary settlement. The chief sent them some food; then yams, a goat,
fowl, and meat. Livingstone gave him a shawl, and two bunches of beads,
and he seemed pleased. During these exciting scenes he felt no fever;
but when they were over the constant wettings made him experience a sore
sense of sinking, and this Sunday was a day "of perfect uselessness."
Monday came, and while Livingstone was as low as possible, the
inexorable chief renewed his demands. "It was," he says, "a day
of torture."
"After talking nearly the whole day we gave the old chief an
ox, but he would not take it, but another. I was grieved
exceedingly to find that our people had become quite
disheartened, and all resolved to return home. All I can say
has no effect. I can only look up to God to influence their
minds, that the enterprise fail not, now that we have reached
the very threshold of the Portuguese settlements. I am
greatly distressed at this change, for what else can be done
for this miserable land I do not see. It is shut. O Almighty
God, help, help! and leave not this wretched people to the
slave-dealer and Satan. The people have done well hitherto, I
see God's good influence in it. Hope He has left only for a
little season. No land needs the gospel more than this
miserable portion. I hope I am not to be left to fail in
introducing it."
On Wednesday morning, however, final arrangements were made, and the
party passed on in peace. Ten days later, again on a Sunday, they were
once more pestered by a great man demanding dues. Livingstone replied by
simply defying him. He might kill him, but God would judge. And on the
Monday they left peaceably, thankful for their deliverance, some of the
men remarking, in view of it, that they were "children of Jesus," and
Livingstone thanking God devoutly for his great mercy. Next day they
were again stopped at the river Quango. The poor Makololo had parted in
vain with their copper ornaments, and Livingstone with his razors,
shirts, etc.; yet he had made up his mind (as he wrote to the
Geographical Society afterward) to part with his blanket and coat to get
a passage, when a young Portuguese sergeant, Cypriano de Abrao, made his
appearance, and the party were allowed to pass.
There were many proofs that, though a poor set of fellows, Livingstone's
own followers were animated with extraordinary regard for him. No
wonder! They had seen how sincere he was in saying that he would die
rather than give any of them up to captivity. And all his intercourse
with them had been marked by similar proofs of his generosity and
kindness. When the ox flung him into the river, about twenty of them
made a simultaneous rush for his rescue, and their joy at his safety was
very great.
Amid all that was discouraging in the present aspect of things,
Livingstone could always look forward and rejoice in the good
time coming:
"_Sunday 22d_.--This age presents one great fact in the
Providence of God; missions are sent forth to all quarters of
the world,--missions not of one section of the Church, but of
all sections, and from nearly all Christian nations. It seems
very unfair to judge of the success of these by the number of
conversions which have followed. These are rather proofs of
the missions being of the right sort. They show the direction
of the stream which is set in motion by Him who rules the
nations, and Is destined to overflow the world. The fact
which ought to stimulate us above all others is, not that we
have contributed to the conversion of a few souls, however
valuable these may be, but that we are diffusing a knowledge
of Christianity throughout the world. The number of
conversions in India is but a poor criterion of the success
which has followed the missionaries there. The general
knowledge is the criterion; and there, as well as in other
lands where missionaries in the midst of masses of heathenism
seem like voices crying in the wilderness--Reformers before
the Reformation, future missionaries will see conversions
follow every sermon. We prepare the way for them. May they
not forget the pioneers who worked in the thick gloom with
few rays to cheer, except such as flow from faith in God's
promises! We work for a glorious future which we are not
destined to see--the golden age which has not been, but will
yet be. We are only morning-stars shining in the dark, but
the glorious morn will break, the good time coming yet. The
present mission-stations will all be broken up. No matter how
great the outcry against the instrumentality which God
employs for his purposes, whether by French soldiery as in
Tahiti, or tawny Boers as in South Africa, our duty is
onward, onward, proclaiming God's Word whether men will hear
or whether they will forbear. A few conversions show whether
God's Spirit is in a mission or not. No mission which has his
approbation is entirely unsuccessful. His purposes have been
fulfilled, if we have been faithful. 'The nation or kingdom
that will not serve Thee shall utterly be destroyed'--this
has often been preceded by free offers of friendship and
mercy, and many missions which He has sent in the olden time
seemed bad failures. Noah's preaching was a failure, Isaiah
thought his so too. Poor Jeremiah is sitting weeping tears
over his people, everybody cursing the honest man, and he
ill-pleased with his mother for having borne him among such a
set. And Ezekiel's stiff-necked, rebellious crew were no
better. Paul said, 'All seek their own, not the things of
Jesus Christ,' and he knew that after his departure grievous
wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock. Yet the cause
of God is still carried on to more enlightened developments
of his will and character, and the dominion is being given by
the power of commerce and population unto the people of the
saints of the Most High. And this is an everlasting 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, reaching 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 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 were afterward added an expressive series of marks of
interrogation.
At a later date he saw reason to doubt the sincerity of some of the
professions of these gentlemen. Ingenuous and trustful, he could at
first think nothing but good of those who had shown him such marked
attention. Afterward, the inexorable logic of facts proved too strong,
even for his unsuspecting soul. But the kindness of the Portuguese was
most genuine, and Livingstone never ceased to be grateful for a single
kind act. It is important to note that whatever he came to think of
their policy afterward, he was always ready to make this acknowledgment.
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 frequent 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 information, 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. Afterward,
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 honorable 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 honorable 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 correspondence 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 so prevalent in his
class, he had been used to think of epauleted gentlemen as idlers, or
worse--"_fruges consumere 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 honorably 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 without 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 hot yet accomplished his object. He had,
indeed, discovered a way by his friend Sekelétu might sell his tusks to
far greater advantage, 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
Linyanti, and set out from it to find a way to the eastern shore. Loaded
with kindness from many quarters, and furnished with presents for
Sekelétu, 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 afterward,
gives his impressions of Loanda and the neighborhood;
"_Golungo 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 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 remained 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 Cassangé.
"The [Roman Catholic] Bishop, who was then acting-governor,
gave a horse, saddle, and bridle, a colonel's suit of
clothes, etc., for Sekelétu, 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 I ever traveled with
except Malatzi and Mebalwe. The merchants of Loanda gave
Sekelétu a large present of cloth, beads, etc., and one of
them, a Dutch-man, gave me an order for ten oxen as
provisions on the way home to the Zambesi. This is all to
encourage the natives to trade freely with the coast, and
will have a good effect in increasing our influence for that
which excels everything 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 moat 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 spoonful 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. The common people are extremely civil,
and a very large proportion of the inhabitants in one
district called Ambaca can read and write well. They were
first taught by the Roman Catholic missionaries, and now
teach each other so well, it is considered a shame in an
Ambacista not to be able to write his own name at least. But
they have no Bibles. They are building a church at Ambaca,
and another is in course of erection here, though they cannot
get any priests. May God grant that we may be useful in some
degree in this field also.... Give my love to all the
children, 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. Livingstone was making
very careful astronomical observations, in order to determine his exact
positions, and transmitting elaborate letters to the Geographical
Society. His astronomical observations were regularly forwarded to his
friend 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 afterward, 11th August, 1855, but with reference
to papers received from Sekelétu'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 labors 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. O 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 travelers 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
travelers in Africa can boast of--he has fixed his geographical points
with very great accuracy, and yet he is only a poor missionary."
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 Roderick Murchison, the Society testified its appreciation by
awarding him their gold medal--the highest honor 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. The 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, recovering 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 on their homeward tour.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE.
A.D. 1854-1856.
Livingstone sets out from Loanda--Journey back--Effects of
slavery--Letter to his wife--Severe attack of fever--He reaches the
Barotse country--Day of thanksgiving--His efforts for the good of his
men--Anxieties of the Moffats--Mr. Moffat's journey to Mosilikatse--Box
at Linyanti--Letter from Mrs. Moffat--Letters to Mrs. Livingstone, Mr.
Moffat, and Mrs. Moffat--Kindness of Sekelétu--New escort--He sets out
for the East Coast--Discovers the Victoria Falls--The healthy
longitudinal ridges--Pedestrianism--Great dangers--Narrow
escapes--Triumph of the spirit of trust in God--Favorite
texts--Reference to Captain Maclure's experience--Chief subjects of
thought--Structure of the continent--Sir Roderick Murchison anticipates
his discovery--Letters to Geographical Society--First letter from Sir
Roderick Murchison--Missionary labor--Monasteries--Protestant
mission-stations wanting in self-support--Letter to Directors--Fever not
so serious an obstruction as it seemed--His own hardships--Theories of
mission-work--Expansion _v_. Concentration--Views of a missionary
statesman--He reaches Tette--Letter to King of Portugal--To Sir Roderick
Murchison--Reaches Senna--Quilimane--Retrospect--Letter from
Directors--Goes to Mauritius--Voyage home--Narrow escape from shipwreck
in Bay of Tunis--He reaches England, Dec., 1856--News of his
father's death.
Dr. Livingstone left St. Paul de Loanda on 24th September, 1854, arrived
at his old quarters at Linyanti on 11th September, 1855, set out
eastward on 3d November, 1855, and reached Quilimane on the eastern
coast on 20th May, 1856. His 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 outward. This arose from detention
of various kinds[41]: 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. These 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 labor 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.
[Footnote 41: Dr. Livingstone observed that traders generally traveled
ten days in the month, and rested twenty, making seven geographical
miles a day, or seventy per month. In his case in this journey the
proportion was generally reversed--twenty days of traveling 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.]
He found renewed occasion to acknowledge in the warmest terms the
kindness he received from the Portuguese; and his prayers that God would
reward and bless them were not the less sincere that in many important
matters he could not approve of their ways.
In traversing the road backward along which he had already come, not
many things happened that demand special notice in this brief sketch. We
find him both in his published book and still more in his private
Journal repeating his admiration of the country and its glorious
scenery. This revelation of the marvelous 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 profound does their degradation appear, although the
many instances of remarkable kindness to himself, and occasional cases
of genuine feeling one toward 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 undervalued the influences which the Portuguese had brought to
bear on them; he had a much more favorable opinion of the Jesuit
missions than Protestants have usually allowed themselves to entertain,
and felt both kindly and respectfully toward the padres, who in the
earlier 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
surroundings, 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 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
defenseless. 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 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, paramount 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 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 traveled 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 men explain the whole
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."
"_August 12_.--A very good and attentive audience. Surely all
will not be forgotten. How small their opportunity compared
to ours who have been carefully instructed in the knowledge
of divine truth from our earliest infancy! The Judge is just
and merciful. He will deal fairly and kindly with all."
"_October 15_.--We had a good and very attentive audience
yesterday, 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 vegetation 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. O 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. 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 woolen 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 confidently to expect
them to be fulfilled, and that every petition, however
fervent, must be with devout submission to his will. My poor
sister-in-law clung tenaciously to the 91st Psalm, and firmly
believed 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 came[42]. She had exercised strong
faith, and was disappointed. Bear Livingstone, I have always
endeavored 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 upward. 'Keep him
as the apple of Thine eye,' 'Hold him in the hollow of Thy
hand,' are the ejaculations of my heart."
[Footnote 42: 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.]
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:
"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 attraction' 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 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 miscarried."
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 his 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 favorite texts
for the present--"Commit thy way to the Lord," and "Lo, I am with you
alway"; and his favorite 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 different 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.
Sekelétu had not been behaving well in Livingstone's absence. He had
been conducting marauding parties against his neighbors, 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 appeared at church, "attracting
more attention than the sermon." He continued, however, to 'show the
same friendship for Livingstone, and did all he could for him when he
set out eastward. A new escort of men was provided, 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 Sekelétu 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 becomes quite amazing when we think that he went
without stores, and owed everything to the influence he acquired with
men like Sekelétu and the natives generally. His heart was much touched
on one occasion by the disinterested kindness of Sekelétu. 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
Sekelétu 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 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
wonderful 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[43] that have taken most hold on the popular
imagination, for the Victoria Falls are like a second Niagara, but
grander and more astonishing; but except as illustrating his views of
the structure of Africa, and the distribution of its waters, it had not
much influence, and led to no very remarkable results. 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[44], 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.
[Footnote 43: Virtually a discovery, though marked in an old map.]
[Footnote 44: Afterward ascertained by him to be 1800 yards and 820 feet
respectively.]
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 favorable 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 favorable for walking 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 tread-mill."
When Livingstone came to England, and was writing books, his tendency
was rather to get stout than thin; and the disgust with which he spoke
then of the "beastly fat" seemed to show that if for nothing else than
to get rid of it he would have been glad to be on the tread-mill again.
In one of his letters to Mr. Maclear he thus speaks of a part of this
journey: "It was not likely that I should know our course well, for the
country there is covered with shingle and gravel, bushes, trees, and
grass, and we were without path. Skulking out of the way of villages
where we were expected to pay after the purse was empty, it was
excessively hot and steamy; the eyes had to be always fixed on the
ground to avoid being tripped."
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 Sekelétu. At the union of the rivers Loangwa and
Zambesi, the suspicious feeling regarding him reached a climax, and he
could only avoid the threatened 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:
_14th January_, 1856.--At the confluence of the Loangwa and
Zambesi. Thank God for his great mercies thus far. How soon I
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. O 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, O 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, _I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world_' It is the word of a gentleman of the most sacred
and strictest honor, 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 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 honor, 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:
_"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 toward 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 collecting from all
quarters long before daybreak. It would be considered 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 disdain 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 entire 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 preceded 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 longitudinal 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 Livingstone 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 Maclure, the discoverer of the Northwest 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. Commit thy way unto thy
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 floating 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 favorable to the vigor or the prosperity of the spiritual life.
"Traveling 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
great 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 communication 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 remarkable, and it lay at the foundation of that brotherlike
intimacy and friendship which ever marked his relation with Murchison.
One important bearing of the geographical fact was this; it was evident
that while the low districts 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 hopes 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[45]. Formerly, as we have seen, he had written through a Fellow
of the Society, his friend and former fellow-traveler, Captain, now
Colonel Steele; but as the Colonel had been called on duty to the
Crimea, he now addressed his letters to his countryman, 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:
[Footnote 45: The dates were Pungo Andongo, 24th December, 1864;
Cabango, 17th May, 1855; Linyanti, October 16, 1855; Chanyuni, 25th
January, 1856; Tette, 4th March, 1856; Quilimane, 23d May, 1856.]
"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 labors 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 geographical 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 honored, as I
shall certainly be gratified, by every fresh line which you
may have leisure to write to me.
"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,
"RODCK* I. MURCHISON,"
The other subject that chiefly occupied Livingstone's mind at this time
was missionary labor. This, like all other labor, required to be
organized, 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 establishments, 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 vigor, 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 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 animated 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 exempted, 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 contagious diseases of
which much was heard in civilized 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 tribes were friendly, and, for reasons of their own, would
welcome missionaries. The Makololo, for example, furnished an inviting
field. The dangers he had encountered arose from the irritating
treatment the tribes had received from half-cast traders and
slave-dealers, in consequence of which they had imposed certain taxes on
travelers, 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 indirect 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 over whelming
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. Concentration 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
conversions, 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 desirable centre-point for the
spread of civilization and Christianity; 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 advantage 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 confer 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
air important transition from the ideas of a mere missionary laborer to
those of a missionary general or statesman. In the early part of his
life he deemed it his joy and his honor to aim at the conversion of
individual souls, and earnestly did he labor 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 temptations 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 accomplishment 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
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 statesman; 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 "civilized 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 the 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 inhabitant 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
Portugal: it affords clear evidence that, however much Livingstone 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 wholesome development of the Portuguese colonies. It refutes, by
anticipation, calumnies afterward circulated to the effect that
Livingstone's real design was to wrest the Portuguese settlements in
Africa from Portugal, and to annex them to the British Crown. He refers
most gratefully 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 laborers, 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 traveler reached spots that lay in Dr. Livingstone's
subsequent route, the fact would detract nothing from his merit, because
he derived not a tittle of benefit from their experience, and what he
was concerned about was, not the mere honor 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. 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 honor belongs to our country." He refers to the
brave attempt of Captain José 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 proposing a chain of forts along the
banks of the Coanza. In 1815, two black traders showed the possibility
of communication from east to west, by bringing to Loanda communications
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 expected 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,
laboring 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 honored to do some good
to this poor long downtrodden Africa, the gentlemen over
whom you have the honor to preside will, I believe, cordially
join."
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[46].
[Footnote 46: Among Livingstone's papers we have found draft letter to
the Admiralty, earnestly commending to their Lordship's favorable
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 continent was
embittered when the news of the sad catastrophe reached him.]
News from across the Atlantic likewise informed him that his nephew and
namesake, David Livingston, 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, recognize 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 civilization--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 laboring 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 set my face southward, where missionaries
are not needed, the gracious Spirit of God influenced the
minds of the heathen to regard me with favor, the Divine hand
is again perceived. Then I turned away westward, 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 Sechéle
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 labor." Dr.
Livingstone very naturally understood this as a declinature of his
proposals. Writing on the subject to Rev. William Thompson, the
Society's agent at Cape Town, he said:
"I had imagined in my simplicity that both my preaching,
conversation, 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 teeming population 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
service to the cause of Christy 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 constrain 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."
A long letter to the Secretary gives a fuller statement of his views. It
is so important as throwing light on his missionary consistency, that we
give it in full in the Appendix[47].
[Footnote 47: Appendix No. III.]
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 flapping all helplessly, against the rocks;
the boats were provisioned, watered, and armed, the number
each was to carry 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 _viâ_ Marseilles, and Livingstone proceeded
homeward 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'll
know whatever 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.
CHAPTER X.
FIRST VISIT HOME.
A.D. 1856-1857.
Mrs. Livingstone--Her intense anxieties--Her poetical
welcome--Congratulatory letters from Mrs. and Dr, Moffat--Meeting of
welcome of Royal Geographical Society--of London Missionary
Society--Meeting in Mansion House--Enthusiastic public meeting at Cape
Town--Livingstone visits Hamilton--Returns to London to write his
book--Letter to Mr. Maclear--Dr. Risdon Bennett's reminiscences of this
period--Mr. Frederick Fitch's--Interview with Prince
Consort--Honors--Publication and great success of _Missionary
Travels_--Character and design of the book--Why it was not more of a
missionary record--Handsome conduct of publisher--Generous use of the
profits--Letter to a lady in Carlisle vindicating the character of
his speeches.
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 casualty 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.
O long as we were parted, ever since you went away,
I never passed a dreamless night, or knew an easy day.
So 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'll never part.
* * * * *
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 may 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[48]. In the fullnes of her congratulations she does
not forget the dark shadow that falls on the missionary's wife when the
time comes for her to go back with her husband to their foreign home,
and requires her to part with 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:
[Footnote 48: 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. Perhaps it is not yet too late for some friend to think
of this.]
"_Kuruman, December_ 4, 1856.--MY DEAREST MARY,--In
proportion 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 endeavor 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 numerous dangers and deaths, to
penetrate, there to spend the remainder 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 toward you, and deeply as I
have sympathized 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. Livingston'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 relaxation, 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 remember
you daily, and thus our sympathy will be kept alive with
you...."
Dr. Moffatt'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 honors 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 showing you that your labors to lay open the recesses
of the fast 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 sympathize with her, and I daresay many
have called you 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
exergies 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 December, 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 Geographic 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-travelers, 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 Livingstone 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 traveled over
not less than eleven thousand miles of African ground. Surpassing the
French missionary travelers, Hue and Gabet, he had determined, by
astronomical observations, 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 experience, 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 honorable' of all
Livingstone's acts had yet to be mentioned--the fidelity that kept his
promise to the natives, who, having accompanied him to St. Paul de
Loanda, were reconducted by him from that city to their homes.
"Bare fortitude and virtue must our medalist have possessed,
when, having struggled at the imminent risk of his life
through such 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 influence 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 apologized 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 armor, and therefore
in no condition to speak boastfully; and that the enterprise would never
be complete till the slave-trade was abolished, and the whole country
opened up to commerce and Christianity.
Among the distinguished men who took part in the conversation that
followed was Professor Owen. He bore testimony to the value of
Livingstone's contributions to zoology and palæontology, 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 such pains to keep his word.
In the recognition by other gentlemen of Dr. Livingstone's labors, much
stress was laid on the scientific accuracy with which he had laid down
every point over which he had traveled. Thanks were given to the
Portuguese 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 Sekelétu'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 Aurora_.
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 travelers in the neighborhood of their home.
Happily Mrs. Livingstone was present, and heard this acknowledgment of
her kindness.
Next day, 16th December, Dr. Livingstone had his reception from the
London Missionary Society in Freemason's Hall. Lord Shaftesbury 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
worshipers, the name of Christ will be honored with more than
ordinary devotion, to receive a man whose life and labors
have been in humble, hearty, and willing obedience to the
angels' song, 'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace,
good-will toward men.'"
In reply, 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 Shaftesbury's words at the close of this meeting, in honor 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 earner by her spirit, her counsel, and her society.
Afterward, 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 civilization
and the great interests of Christianity."
A more general meeting was held in the Mansion House on the 5th of
January, to consider the propriety of presenting 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 honor of the missionary 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 eminence 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 Seshéke to
its confluence with the Lonta, were considered by the Astronomer-Royal
to be "the finest specimens 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 observations. 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[49]."
[Footnote 49: It seems unaccountable that in the face of such unrivaled
testimonies, reflections should continue to be cast on Livingstone's
scientific accuracy, even so late as the meeting of the British
Association at Sheffield in 1879. The family of the late Sir Thomas
Maclear have sent home his collection of Livingstone's papers. They fill
a box which one man could with difficulty carry. And their mass is far
from their most striking quality. The evidence of laborious, painstaking
care to be accurate is almost unprecedented. Folio volumes of pages
covered with figures show how much time and labor must have been spent
in these computations. Explanatory remarks often indicate the
particulars of the observation.]
Following this unrivaled eulogium on the scientific powers of
Livingstone came the testimony of Mr. Thompson to his missionary ardor:
'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 realizing the
obligations 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 such 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 suddenly 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
honorable, 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
unforeseen 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. Rutherfoord said, "at the very time that he was
engaged in such important duties, and exposed to such difficulties, he
found time to fulfill 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 exertions, to render the plan, if not perfectly
successful, yet by no means a failure."
Traveler, geographer, zoologist, astronomer, missionary, physician, and
mercantile director, did ever man sustain so many characters at once? 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 engagements, he ran down
to Hamilton to see his mother, children, 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 remarking 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 fulfill his promise to return to his
Makololo at Tette. But on receiving an assurance from the Portuguese
Government (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 unequaled interest excited by the
subject, but also of the readiness of unprincipled adventurers, and even
some respectable publishers, to circulate narratives often mythical and
quite unauthorized.
The early part of the year 1857 was mainly occupied with the labor of
writing. For this he had materials in the Journals which he had kept so
carefully; but the business 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 hundred-fold!
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 humor, 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 collection of pieces than an organized
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, Livingstone, 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 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 organize; the architectural 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 confinement of
book-making in England, than that it survived the tear and wear, labor
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. Here 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 Portuguese 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 payment of
jail fees if put in prison!"
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 afterward when he
disappeared in Africa, coming out all at once at some unexpected corner
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 Dr. Risdon Bennett:
"On returning to England, after his first great journey of
discovery, 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 information. 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. He had, while
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 endeavored 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
characterized 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 was his attachment to his own family
after his long and frequent separations from them, and how
entirely he had retained his simplicity of character.
"Like so many of his countrymen, he had a keen sense of
humor, which frequently came into play when relating his many
adventures and hardships. On the latter he never dilated in
the way of complaint, and he had little sympathy with, or
respect for, those travelers who did so. Nor was he apt to
say much on direct religious 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 labor. 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 Livingstones 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'll 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 after the service they came trooping toward him,
even over the pews, in their anxiety to see him and shake
hands[50].
[Footnote 50: A similar occurrence took place in a church at
Bath during the meetings of the British Association in 1864]
"Dr. Livingstone usually conducted our family worship. On
Sunday morning 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 humor. Mrs.
Livingstone 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. Yet 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 appearance of a very strong man."
In spite of his literary work, the stream of public honors 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 presentation took place. Most of his public
honors, however, were reserved till the autumn.
The _Missionary Travels_ was published in November, 1857, and the
success of the book was quite remarkable. Writing 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 again. The book is out to-day, and I am going to
Captain Washington to see about copies to yourself, the
Governor, the Bishop, Fairbairn, Thompson, Rutherfoord, and
Saul Solomon[51]. 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 _Athenæum_ has come out strongly on the same side. This
is considered a successful launch for a guinea book."
[Footnote 51: 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.]
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 concerns 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 contribution to missionary literature. But
there was another consideration. 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
gladdened 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 possession of Africa
for Christ. He would diligently record facts which he had ascertained
about Africa, facts that he saw 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 constituency to deal with, and where the precise method by
which Africa would be civilized was yet so indefinite, he would
faithfully record what he had come to know, and let others build as they
might with his materials. Certainly, 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 commentary 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 handsome conduct of the
publishers, 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 favorite 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 ready to report his geography than his
missionary 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 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 labored in bricks and mortar, at the forge
and carpenter's bench, as well as 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 eulogized 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 to
engage in, I now refrain from taking any salary from the
Society with which I was connected; so no pecuniary loss is
sustained by any one."
Subsequently, when detained in Manyuema, and when his immediate object
was to determine the water-shed, 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 unconscientious men took occasion to prevent many
from sympathizing with me."
CHAPTER XI.
FIRST VISIT HOME--_continued_.
A.D. 1857-1858.
Livingstone at Dublin, at British Association--Letter to his wife--He
meets the Chamber of Commerce at Manchester--At Glasgow, receives honors
from Corporation, University, Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, United
Presbyterians, Cotton-spinners--His speeches in reply--His brother
Charles joins him--Interesting meeting and speech at Hamilton--Reception
from "Literary and Scientific Institute of Blantyre"--Sympathy with
operatives--Quick apprehension of all public questions--His social views
in advance of the age--He plans a People's Café--Visit to
Edinburgh--More honors--Letter to Mr. Maclear--Interesting visit to
Cambridge--Lectures there--Professor Sedgwick's remarks on his
visit--Livingstone's great satisfaction--Relations to London Missionary
Society--He severs his connection--Proposal of Government expedition--He
accepts consulship and command of expedition--Kindness of Lords
Palmerston and Clarendon--The Portuguese Ambassador--Livingstone
proposes to go to Portugal--Is dissuaded--Lord Clarendon's letter to
Sekelétu--Results of Livingstone's visit to England--Farewell banquet,
Feb., 1858--Interview with the Queen--Valedictory letters--Professor
Sedgwick and Sir Roderick Murchison--Arrangements for expedition--Dr.,
Mrs., and Oswell Livingstone set sail from Liverpool--Letters
to children.
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 Association for the Advancement of Science, and gave an
interesting 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 inquired after you, and
father's book is better known here than anywhere else I have
been. But it could scarcely have 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 missionary, 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 the Kent East Indiaman_. His son, the only
infant saved, is now a devoted Christian, a barrister[52]."
[Footnote 52: Dr. Livingstone always liked that style of earnest
Christianity which he notices in this letter. In November of the same
year, after he had resigned his connection with the London Missionary
Society, and was preparing 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 services in comparison. That was his sister you saw me walking
with in Dublin at the Gardens (Lady Rayleigh). If you have not read it,
the sooner you dip into it the better. You will thank me for it."]
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 to, and a strong desire expressed that Her Majesty's
Government would unite with that of Portugal in giving Dr. Livingstone
facilities for further exploration 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 Presbyterians, and the Associated Operative Cotton-spinners of
Scotland came forward to pay him honor. 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 "Protection" 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 labors. 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 honor 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 devote themselves to the same noble profession:
"In the country to which I went," he continued, "I endeavored
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 perform miracles. The nearest approach which
they could expect to make was to become acquainted with
medical science, and endeavor 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 somewhat 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 encouraging; 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 labored 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 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 enjoyed ourselves
to the fullest extent."
At Hamilton an interesting meeting took place in the Congregational
Chapel where he had been a worshiper 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 lionizing he was undergoing, and how
unexpected all the honors 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 kindness 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 honor to himself, as if he
had achieved anything by his own might or wisdom. He thanked God
sincerely for employing him as an instrument in his work. One of the
greatest honors 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 honor 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 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[53]. 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-Christians
unchristian, than to appear inconsistent with the
denominational principles we profess.... Let this meeting be
the ratification of the bond of union between my brother[54]
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."
[Footnote 53: 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 afterward, 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.]
[Footnote 54: Dr. Livingstone had been joined by his brother Charles,
who was present on this occasion.]
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 laboring 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 counseled them strongly to put more confidence than workmen generally
did in the honest good intentions of their employers, 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 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 temperance
coffee-house movement, now so popular and successful. On 11th 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 Athenæum. 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 cafés, 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 proceed to Leeds, Liverpool, and Birmingham, "and then farewell to
public spouting for ever. I am dead tired of it. 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
exhausted; 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 is probable that seed was silently sown which led
afterward to the Scotch Livingstonia Mission--one of the most hopeful
schemes for carrying out Livingstone's plans that have yet been
organized.
Among the other honors conferred on him during this visit to Britain was
the degree of D.C.L. from the University 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 Royal 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.R. (_pro Regina_), a thing that had never been done before[55].
[Footnote 55: For list of Dr. Livingstone's honors, see Appendix No. V.]
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 lionizing, 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 _Grahamstown
Journal?_"
Livingstone was not yet done with "public spouting," even after his trip
to Oxford. Among the visits paid by him toward 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, consisting of graduates and
undergraduates and many visitors from the town and neighborhood. 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 honorable 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 as a
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 consciousness 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 which I have begun, I LEAVE IT WITH YOU!"
In a prefatory letter prefixed to the volume entitled _Dr. 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 permitted 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 without 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 presiding. Referring to his own
plans, he said:
"I contend that we ought not to be ashamed of our religion,
and had 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, endeavoring 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 civilizing and
Christianizing the heathen. We cannot all go out as
missionaries, it is true; but we may all do something toward
providing a substitute. Moreover, all may especially do that
which every missionary highly prizes, 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 afterward, 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 counselors, Mr. J.B. Braithwaite, of
Lincoln's Inn. Though himself a member of the Society of Friends, Mr.
Braithwaite was 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 important, 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 associated."
On Dr. Livingstone explaining that, while he fully appreciated 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 exploration, 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
recognized 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 circumstance 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
provided 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 favorably by the Government,
and practically 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 independent 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, R.N., Naval Officer;
John Kirk, M.D., Botanist and Physician; Mr. Charles Livingstone,
brother of Dr. Livingstone, General Assistant and Secretary; Mr. Richard
Thornton, Practical Mining Geologist; Mr. Thomas Baines, Artist and
Storekeeper; and Mr. George Rae, Ship Engineer; and whoever afterward
might join the expedition were required to obey Dr. Livingstone's
directions as leader.
"We managed your affair very nicely," Lord Palmerston 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 congratulated 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 headquarters
which was so necessary. The Prince Consort had promised to introduce him
to his cousin, the King of Portugal. There were, however, some obstacles
to his going. 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 Clarendon, who
confirmed Lord Palmerston's opinion, and assured him that when Lavradio
returned, the affair would be settled. The Lisbon journey was
accordingly given up. The Count returned to London before Livingstone
left, and expressed 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
neutralized 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
Sekelétu, 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 Sekelétu would help to keep "God's highway,"
the river Zambesi, as a free 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 received from
heaven, it will be well if you consider it carefully when any of our
people talk to you about it[56]."
[Footnote 56: See Appendix No. IV.]
Most men, after receiving such _carte blanche_ 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 Washington, 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 practical 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 labors, 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
mismanaged 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 toward 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 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 and 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 travelers, 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, like Mr. R.A.
Macfie and the late Mr. James Cunningham, of Edinburgh, 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 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 honor 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 information[57],
after referring to the fact that Livingstone was not presented in the
usual way, says:
[Footnote 57: We have ascertained that the correspondent was the late
Mr. Keddie, of the Glasgow Free Church College, who got his information
from Mr. James Young.]
"He was honored 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 traveler 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 of 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 question 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 rumor came of
his death.
The banquet in Freemason's Tavern, which it had been intended to limit
to 250 guests, overflowed the allotted bounds, and was attended by
upward of 350, including the Ministers of Sweden and Norway, and of
Denmark; Dukes of Argyll and Wellington; Earl of Shaftesbury and Earl
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 honors which the Universities and cities of
our country could shower upon him, he is still the same honest,
true-hearted David Livingstone 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 Iona--"that illustrious 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 remembered, perhaps,
by millions of the human race as the first pioneer of civilization, and
the first harbinger of the gospel. It was graceful in the Bishop of
Oxford (Samuel Wilberforce) 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 Livingstone'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 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 which the most
ardent admirer of the British lion could desire[58]!
[Footnote 58: Livingstone purposed to bequeath to Professor Owen a
somewhat extraordinary legacy. Writing afterward 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."]
On no topic was the applause of the company more enthusiastic than when
mention was made of Mrs. Livingstone, 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
welcome 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 DEAR SIR,--Your kind and
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 endeavors 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 they
were 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 discoveries (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 through from beginning to end with sentiments of
reverence and honor for the past and good hopes for
the future.
"What a glorious prospect is before you! the commencement of
the civilization 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 heavenward, 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
labors, 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 myself 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 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 farewell. 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."
"'_Pearl,' in the Mersey, 10th 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 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 checkered 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 EXPLORATION OF THE SHIRÉ.
A.D. 1858-1859.
Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone sail in the "Pearl"--Characteristic
instructions to members of Expedition--Dr. Livingstone conscious of
difficult position--Letter to Robert--Sierra Leone--Effects of British
Squadron and of Christian Missions--Dr. and Mrs. Moffat at Cape
Town--Splendid reception there--Illness of Mrs. Livingstone--She remains
behind--The five years of the Expedition--Letter to Mr. James Young--to
Dr. Moffat--Kongone entrance to Zambesi--Collision with Naval
Officer--Disturbed state of the country--Trip to Kebrabasa Rapids--Dr.
Livingstone applies for new steamer--Willing to pay for one
himself--Exploration of the Shiré--Murchison Cataracts--Extracts from
private Journal--Discovery of Lake Shirwa--Correspondence--Letters to
Agnes Livingstone--Trip to Tette--Kroomen and two members of Expedition
dismissed--Livingstone's vindication--Discovery of Lake Nyassa--Bright
hopes for the future--Idea of a colony--Generosity of
Livingstone--Letters to Mr. Maclear, Mr. Young, and Sir Roderick
Murchison--His sympathy with the "honest poor"--He hears of the birth of
his youngest daughter.
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
permanently used in the exploration of the Zambesi and its tributaries.
At starting, the "Pearl" had fine weather and a favorable wind, and
quickly ran down the Channel and across the Bay of Biscay. With that
business-like precision which characterized 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 Expedition, and he afterward 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, for this
purpose, great stress was laid on the subsidiary instructions prepared
by Professor Owen, Sir W. Hooker, and Sir R. 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 prepared to meet it. At the same time, you are
strictly enjoined to exercise the greatest forbearance toward
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
dealing 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 the human family. We are adherents of a benign, holy
religion, and may, by consistent conduct, and wise, patient
efforts, become the harbingers of peace to a hitherto
distracted and trodden-down race. No great result is ever
attained without patient, long-continued effort. In the
enterprise in which we have the honor to be engaged, deeds of
sympathy, consideration, 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 handwriting 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
conciliatory 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 instructions, 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 of his doings to the
Government and the nation, he confined 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 undiminished 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 DEAR ROBERT,--We have been going at the rate of 200 miles
a day ever since we left Liverpool, and have been much
favored 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 favor."
Sierra Leone was reached in a fortnight. Dr. Livingstone 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 blessing 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 honored. 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 explaining 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 unusually
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
Livingstone 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 post-master. Now he
returns with the Queen's gold band round his cap, and with brighter
decorations round his name than Sovereigns can give; and all Cape Town
hastens to honor 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 opportunities it afforded for the achievement of his
object and the development of his character. It may he well to note
here generally how the years were occupied. The remainder of 1858 was
employed in exploring the mouths of the Zambesi, and the river itself up
to Tette and the Kebrabasa Rapids, a few miles beyond. Next
year--1859--was devoted mainly to three successive trips on the river
Shiré, the third being signalized by the discovery of Lake Nyassa. In
1860 Livingstone went back with his Makololo up the Zambesi to the
territories of Sekelétu. In 1861, after exploring the river Rovuma, and
assisting Bishop Mackenzie to begin the Universities' Mission, he
started for Lake Nyassa, returning to the ship toward 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 Shiré 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's Branch. Of their progress Dr. Livingstone gives his
impressions in the following letter to his friend Mr. James Young:
"'PEARL,'10_th 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 favored 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 accompanied 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 from Kuruman to see us and help the
young missionaries, whom the London 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 ardor 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-Robert," 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 offenses,' 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 remove the
sections of the "Ma-Robert" from the "Pearl"; accordingly, with the
exception of the time occupied in the usual prayers, that day was spent
in labor. His constant regard for the day of rest and great
unwillingness to engage in labor then, is the best proof that on 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; certainly 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." Afterward, when Mrs. Livingstone died
during a long but unavoidable delay at Shupanga, 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 advantage 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 depôt, 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 time 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 narrative. 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 that the officer had failed to clear himself,
and that Dr. Livingstone's proceedings were fully approved. Livingstone
had received authority to stop the pay of any member of the Expedition
that should prove unsatisfactory; this, of course, subjected his conduct
to the severer criticism.
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--opportunities 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 intercourse 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 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 endeavors after reaching Tette was to ascertain how far
the navigation of the Zambesi was impeded 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-Robert" 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.
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
authorized 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 Shiré; 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-Robert," 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 connection with the manner which the
"eminent shipbuilder" had taken to show his love.
Early in 1859 the exploration of the Shiré was begun--a river hitherto
absolutely unknown. The country around was rich and fertile, the natives
not unfriendly, but suspicious. They had probably never been visited
before but by man-stealers, and had never seen Europeans. The Shiré
Valley was inhabited by the Manganja, a very warlike race. Some days'
journey above the junction with the Zambesi, where the Shiré 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 civilizing them, and at a 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 9-1/2 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 Shiré was
performed, and friendly relations were established with a clever chief
named Chibisa, "a jolly person, who 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 his father had imparted an influence to him, which had
come in by his head, whereby every person that had 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 détour to the east, the travelers 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
Shiré. Livingstone 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 harbor, 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 F. 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 Shiré, 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 conclude 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 harbor. This we told the Admiral we
should do in case of not meeting the cruiser, and whoever
comes will search for our bottle and see another appointment
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
Liverpool, and we long now to hear how all goes on in Europe
and in India. I am now on my way to Tette, but we ran up the
Shiré 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 is about eight feet long, the head,
or neck rather, is put into the space between the dotted
lines and shaft, and another slave carries the end. When they
are considered tame they are allowed to go in chains.
[Illustration]
"I am working in the hope that in the course of time this
horrid system may cease. All the country we traveled 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.
Perhaps God may honor 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
Guide. Tell Him all that is in your heart, and make Him your
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 Shiré,
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 favor. 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 gracious 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. The accusation, even at first sight, has an air of
improbability, 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 mosquitoes, the delays, the
stoppages on sandbanks, the perpetual struggle for fuel[59], the
monotony of existence, with so little to break 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 his countrymen he had not in managing the natives. He was so
conscientious, so deeply in earnest, so hard a worker himself, that he
could endure nothing that seemed like playing or trifling with duty.
Sometimes, too, things were harshly represented to him, on which a
milder construction might have been put. One of those with whom he
parted at this time afterward rejoined the Expedition, his pay being
restored on Livingstone's intercession. Those who continued 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.
[Footnote 59: This was incredible. Livingstone wrote to his friend José
Nunes that it took all hands a day and a half to cut one day's fuel.]
A third trip up the Shiré was made in August, and on the 16th of
September Lake Nyassa was discovered. Livingstone 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 unfortunate 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 configuration
of the Shiré Valley, too, was favorable to colonization. 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 Shiré, 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 appearance 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 honor of being made a
corresponding member, "because our own ladies, who show so much virtuous
perseverance 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 Shiré 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 Shiré
Valley 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 conveying slaves from the north and
northwest 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 he
would have been most eager to release had he known of any way of
preventing them from falling again into the hands of the 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 realized, and the Shiré Valley and banks of the Nyassa
transformed into the garden of the Lord.
From the very first Livingstone saw the importance of the Shiré 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
colonization of the honest poor; I would give £2000 or £3000
for the purpose. Intend to write my friend Young about it,
and authorize him to draw if the project seems feasible. The
Lord remember my desire, sanctify my motives, and purify all
my desires. Wrote him.
"Colonization 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
performance of an imperative duty to our blood, our country,
our religion, and to humankind. As soon as children begin to
be felt an incumbrance, and what was 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
occupying the position which Englishwomen are so well
calculated to adorn, gives rise to enormous evils in the
opposite sex,--evils and wrongs which we dare not even
name,--and national colonization 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-formed 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 confidential business
friends--Mr. Maclear, Mr. Young, and Sir Roderick Murchison. In all
Livingstone's correspondence 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 colonization 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 inviting, 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 examples of Christian life that would
insure permanency to the gospel once planted. He had always had a warm
side to 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
authorize 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, jenny-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 resignation, 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
permit us to do some good to our fellow-men."
His correspondence with Sir Roderick Murchison is likewise full of the
idea of the colony. He is thoroughly persuaded that no good will ever be
done by the Portuguese. They are a worn-out people--utterly worn out by
disease--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
realized. This must have been one of Livingstone's happiest times.
Visions of Christian colonies, of the spread of arts and civilization,
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. "14_th October>_.--Went on 17th part way up
to Murchison's Cataracts, 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 existence.
CHAPTER XIII.
GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO.
A.D. 1860.
Down to Kongone--State of the ship--Further delay--Letter to Secretary
of Universities Mission--Letter to Mr. Braithwaite--At Tette--Miss
Whately's sugar-mill--With his brother and Kirk at Kebrabasa--Mode of
traveling--Reappearence of old friends--African warfare and its
effects--Desolation--A European colony desirable--Escape from
rhinoceros--Rumors of Moffat--The Portuguese local Governors oppose
Livingstone--He becomes unpopular with them--Letter to Mr. Young--Wants
of the country--The Makololo--Approach home--Some are disappointed--News
of the death of the London missionaries, the Helmores and others--Letter
to Dr. Moffat--The Victoria Falls re-examined--Sekelétu ill of
leprosy--Treatment and recovery--His disappointment at not seeing Mrs.
Livingstone--Efforts for the spiritual good of the Makololo--Careful
observations in Natural History--The last of the "Ma-Robert"--Cheering
prospect of the Universities Mission--Letter to Mr. Moore--to Mr.
Young--He wishes another ship--Letter to Sir Roderick Murchison on the
rumored journey of Silva Porto.
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 be
doing good service to the cause of African civilization, and that on
account of insatiable greediness. Burton may thank L. and B. that we are
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 inward, 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
disappointment of losing a year's correspondence from home. The
following portions of a letter to the Secretary of the Committee for a
Universities Mission gives a view of the situation at this time:
"RIVER ZAMBESI, 26_th 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
woodcutting. The quantity consumed is enormous, and we cannot
get sufficient for speed into the furnace. It was only a
dogged determination 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 establishments 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 overland 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 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 contemplated,
but they have led to our opening a path into the fine
cotton-field 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 honor of establishing 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 without
vegetables, and living on salt beef and pork. The slave-trade
has done its work, for formerly all kinds of provisions could
be procured at every point, and at the cheapest rate. We
cannot get anything 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, 'O
boo! boo! you no hurt me, I no hurt you.'"
At Tette one of his occupations was to fit up a sugar-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 proceeds to give
an account of the Shiré Valley and its people. He finds ground for a
favorable contrast between the Shiré natives and the Tette Portuguese:
"They (the natives) have fences made to guard the women from
the alligators, all along the Shiré: 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
Sekelétu 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 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 Roderick 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 miserable from a fear of
becoming poor; but I have the advantage, 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 Kongone, 10th March,
1860, that he is sending Rae home for a vessel:
"I 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
harbor on the coast, to the main stream; and discovered 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 Shiré of which the
Portuguese make no use, and by enabling us to introduce
civilization in a manner which will extend the honor 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 Portuguese 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 traveling 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 ordinary pace, and the participation in the most
delightful rest with his fellows, made traveling 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 afternoon, 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
sufficient 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 whites. "It is only by
continuance in well-doing," he says, "even to the length of what the
worldly-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 reappeared, notably
Mpende, who had given him such a threatening 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
talkative, 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, he 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 rumors of
wars, might listen to the purifying and ennobling 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 labors 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. Livingstone'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 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 color, 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 the 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 apparent to Dr. Livingstone that the effect
of his opening 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 endeavors in connection with the Rovuma receive their
explanation 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 the Portuguese Government; he could be
so no longer. The remarkable kindness he had so often received from
Portuguese officers and traders made it a most painful trial to 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 might bring it to an end.
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 grace
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 conceive 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 Shiré 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 Church 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 learnt 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
Sekelétu, 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 afterward they preferred
running away like slaves. I never saw any of the interior
people so devoid of honor. Some complained of sickness, 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 labor
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 colonization, as it is
called. Here we are passing through a well-peopled, fruitful
region--a prolonged valley, for we have the highlands far on
our right. I did not observe before that all the banks of the
Zambesi are cotton-fields. I 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 Sekelétu's territory 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
honor of his memory; the news made him resolve, when he presented
himself among them, to declare himself an inhabitant from 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 labor among Sekelétu'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, because he had not heard a word about
the mission, nor been asked advice about any of the arrangements. If
only the Helmores and their comrades had followed the treatment
practiced by him so often, and in this very valley at this time by his
brother Charles, they would probably have recovered. All spoke kindly of
Mr. Helmore, who had quite won the hearts of the people. Knowing their
language, he had at once begun to preach, and some of the young men at
Seshéke were singing the hymns he had taught them. Rumors 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
character of Sekelétu and his disposition toward missionaries; but
Livingstone satisfied himself that, though the missionaries 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 Sechéle was doing well. He had a
Hanoverian 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 younger missionaries had
retired, probably 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 a 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 miles'
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 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 Sekelétu was ill of leprosy. He
was in the hands of a native doctress, who was persuaded to suspend her
treatment, and the lunar caustic applied by Drs. Livingstone and Kirk
had excellent effects[60]. 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 toward him on the part of the
natives greatly touched him. The people were much disappointed 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
continuance in well-doing, and that good manners are as necessary among
barbarians as among the civilized." The Makololo were the most
interesting tribe that Dr. Livingstone had ever seen. While now with
them he was unwearied in his efforts for their spiritual good. In his
Journal we find these entries:
[Footnote 60: In 1864, while residing at Newstead Abbey, and writing his
book, _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_, Dr. Livingstone heard of the
death of Sekelétu.]
"_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 afterward.
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 maintaining 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
conversation continued till they said, 'It was time for me to
cross, for the river was dangerous at night.'"
"_September_ 9.--Spoke to the people on the north side of
the river--wind prevented evening service on the south."
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 Seshéke on the 17th September, they reached Tette on the 23d
November, 1860, whence they started for Kongone with the unfortunate
"Ma-Robert." But the days of that asthmatic old lady were numbered. On
the 21st December she grounded on a sand-bank, 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. You 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 so zealously. We are in the old 'Asthmatic,'
though we gave her 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.
"_20th Dec._--One day, above Senna, the 'Ma-Robert' stuck on
a sand-bank 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 encouraging emigration, the French
were really extending slavery.
Here is his lively account of himself to his friend Mr. Moore:
"TETTE, _28th November_, 1860.
"MY DEAR MOORE,--And why didn't you begin when you were so
often on the point of writing, but didn't? This that you have
accomplished is so far good, but very short. Hope you are not
too old to learn. You have heard of our hindrances and
annoyances, and, possibly, that we have done some work
notwithstanding. Thanks to Providence, we have made some
progress, and it is likely our operations will yet have a
decided effect on slave-trading in Eastern Africa. I am
greatly delighted with the prospect of a Church of England
mission to Central Africa. That is a good omen for those who
are sitting in darkness, and I trust that in process of time
great benefits will be conferred on our own overcrowded
population at home. There is room enough and to spare in the
fair world our Father has prepared for all his progeny. I
pray to be made a harbinger of good to many, both white
and black.
"I like to hear that some abuse me now, and say that I am *no
Christian. Many good things were said of me which I did not
deserve, and I feared to read them. I shall read every word I
can on the other side, and that will prove a sedative to what
I was forced to hear of an opposite tendency. I pray that He
who has lifted me up and guided me thus far, will not desert
me now, but make me useful in my day and generation. 'I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee.' So let it be.
"I saw poor Helmore's grave lately. Had my book been searched
for excellencies, they might have seen a certain cure for
African fever. We were curing it at a lower and worse part of
the river at the very time that they were helplessly
perishing, and so quickly, that more than a day was never
lost after the operation of the remedy, though we were
marching on foot. Our tramp was over 600 miles. We dropped
down stream again in canoes from Sinamanero to
Chicova--thence to this on shank's nag. We go down to the sea
immediately, to meet our new steamer. Our punt was a sham
and a snare.
"My love to Mary and all the children, with all our friends
at Congleton."
In a letter to Mr. James Young, Dr. Livingstone gives good reasons for
not wishing to push the colonization scheme at present, as he had
recommended to the Universities Mission to add a similar enterprise to
their undertaking:
"If you read all I have written you by this mail, you will
deserve to be called a literary character. I find that I did
not touch on the colonization scheme. I have not changed in
respect to it, but the Oxford and Cambridge mission have
taken the matter up, and as I shall do all I can to aid them,
a little delay will, perhaps, be advisable.
"We are waiting for our steamer, and expect her every day;
our first trip is a secret, and you will keep it so. We go to
the Rovuma, a river exterior to the Portuguese claims, as
soon as the vessel arrives. Captain Oldfield of the 'Lyra' is
sent already, to explore, as far as he can, in that ship. The
entrance is fine, and forty-five miles are known, but we keep
our movements secret from the Portuguese--and so must you;
they seize everything they see in the newspapers. Who are my
imprudent friends that publish everything? I suspect Mr.
----, of ----, but no one gives me a name or a clue. Some
expected me to feel sweet at being jewed by a false
philanthropist, and bamboozled by a silly R. N. I did not,
and could not, seem so; but I shall be more careful
in future.
"Again back to the colony. It is not to sleep, but
preparation must be made by collecting information, and
maturing our plans. I shall be able to give definite
instructions as soon as I see how the other mission works--at
its beginning--and when we see if the new route we may
discover has a better path to Nyassa than by Shiré--we shall
choose the best, of course, and let you know as soon as
possible. I think the Government will not hold back if we
have a feasible plan to offer. I have recommended to the
Universities Mission a little delay till we explore,--and for
a working staff, two gardeners acquainted with farming; two
country carpenters, capable of erecting sheds and any rough
work; two traders to purchase and prepare cotton for
exportation; one general steward of mission goods, his wife
to be a good plain cook; one medical man, having knowledge of
chemistry enough to regulate _indigo_ and sugar-making. All
the attendants to be married, and their wives to be employed
in sewing, washing, attending the sick, etc., as need
requires. The missionaries not to think themselves deserving
a good English wife till they have erected a comfortable
abode for her."
In the Royal Geographical Society this year (1860), certain
communications were read which tended to call in question Livingstone's
right to some of the discoveries he had claimed as his own. Mr.
Macqueen, through whom these communications came, must have had peculiar
notions of discovery, for some time before, there had appeared in the
Cape papers a statement of his, that Lake 'Ngami of 1859 was no new
discovery, as Dr. Livingstone had visited it seven years before; and
Livingstone had to write to the papers in favor of the claims of Murray,
Oswell, and Livingstone, against himself! It had been asserted to the
Society by Mr. Macqueen, that Silva Porto, a Portuguese trader, had
shown him a journal describing a journey of his from Benguela on the
west to Ibo and Mozambique on the east, beginning November 26, 1852, and
terminating August, 1854. Of that journal Mr. Macqueen read a copious
abstract to the Society (June 27, 1859), which is published in the
Journal for 1860.
In a letter to Sir Roderick Murchison (20th February, 1861),
Livingstone, while exonerating Mr. Macqueen of all intention of
misleading, gives his reasons for doubting whether the journey to the
East Coast ever took place. He had met Porto at Linyanti in 1853, and
subsequently at Naliele, the Barotse capital, and had been told by him
that he had tried to go eastward, but had been obliged to turn, and was
then going westward, and wished him to accompany him, which he declined,
as he was a slave-trader; he had read his journal as it appeared in the
Loanda "Boletim," but there was not a word in it of a journey to the
East Coast; when the Portuguese minister had wished to find a rival to
Dr. Livingstone, he had brought forward, not Porto, as he would
naturally have done if this had been a genuine journey, but two black
men who came to Tette in 1815; in the Boletim of Mozambique there was no
word of the arrival of Porto there; in short, the part of the journal
founded on could not have been authentic. Livingstone felt keenly on the
subject of these rumors, not on his own account, but on account of the
Geographical Society and of Sir Roderick who had introduced him to it;
for nothing could have given him more pain than that either of these
should have had any slur thrown on them through him, or even been placed
for a time in an uncomfortable position.
CHAPTER XIV.
ROVUMA AND NYASSA--UNIVERSITIES MISSION.
A.D. 1861-1862.
Beginning of 1861--Arrival of the "Pioneer"--and of the agents of
Universities Mission--Cordial welcome--Livingstone's catholic
feelings--Ordered to explore the Rovuma--Bishop Mackenzie goes with
him--Returns to the Shiré--Turning-point of prosperity past--Difficult
navigation--The slave-sticks--Bishop settles at Magomero--Hostilities
between Manganja and Ajawa--Attack of Mission party by
Ajawa--Livingstone's advice to Bishop regarding them--Letter to his son
Robert--Livingstone, Kirk, and Charles start for Lake Nyassa--Party
robbed at north of Lake--Dismal activity of the slave-trade--Awful
mortality in the process--Livingstone's fondness for _Punch_--Letter to
Mr. Young--Joy at departure of new steamer "Lady Nyassa"--Colonization
project--Letter against it from Sir R. Murchison--Hears of Dr. Stewart
coming out from Free Church of Scotland--Visit at the ship from Bishop
Mackenzie--News of defeat of Ajawa by missionaries--Anxiety of
Livingstone--Arrangements for "Pioneer" to go to Kongone for new steamer
and friends from home, then go to Ruo to meet Bishop--"Pioneer"
detained--Dr. Livingstone's anxieties and depressions at New
Year--"Pioneer" misses man-of-war "Gorgon"--At length "Gorgon" appears
with brig from England and "Lady Nyassa"--Mrs. Livingstone and other
ladies on board--Livingstone's meeting with his wife, and with Dr.
Stewart--Stewart's recollections--Difficulties of navigation--Captain
Wilson of "Gorgon" goes up river and hears of death of Bishop Mackenzie
and Mr. Burrup--Great distress--Misrepresentations about Universities
Mission--Miss Mackenzie and Mr. Burrup taken to "Gorgon"--Dr. and Mrs.
Livingstone return to Shupanga--Illness and death of Mrs.
Livingstone--Extracts from Livingstone's Journal and letters to the
Moffats, Agnes, and the Murchisons.
The beginning of 1861 brought some new features on the scene. The new
steamer, the "Pioneer," at last arrived, and was a great improvement on
the "Ma-Robert," though unfortunately she had too great draught of
water. The agents of the Universities Missions also arrived, the first,
detachment consisting of Bishop Mackenzie and five other Englishmen,
and five colored men from the Cape. Writing familiarly to his friend
Moore, _àpropos_ of his new comrades of the Church Mission, Livingstone
says: "I have never felt anyway inclined to turn Churchman or dissenter
either since I came out here. The feelings which we have toward
different sects alter out here quite insensibly, till one looks upon all
godly men as good and true brethren. I rejoiced when I heard that so
many good and great men in the Universities had turned their thoughts
toward Africa, and feeling sure that He who had touched their hearts
would lead them to promote his own glory, I welcomed the men they sent
with a hearty, unfeigned welcome."
To his friend Mr. Maclear he wrote that he was very glad the Mission was
to be under a bishop. He had seen so much idleness and folly result from
missionaries being left to themselves, that it was a very great
satisfaction to find that the new mission was to be superintended by one
authorized and qualified to take the charge. Afterward when he came to
know Bishop Mackenzie, he wrote of him to Mr. Maclear in the highest
terms: "The Bishop is A 1, and in his readiness to put his hand to
anything resembles much my good father-in-law Moffat."
It is not often that missions are over-manned, but in the first stage of
such an undertaking as this, so large a body of men was an incumbrance,
none of them knowing a word of the language or a bit of the way. It was
Bishop Mackenzie's desire that Dr. Livingstone should accompany him at
once to the scene of his future labors and help him to settle. But
besides other reasons, the "Pioneer," as already stated, was under
orders to explore the Rovuma, and, as the Portuguese put so many
obstacles in the way on the Zambesi, to ascertain whether that river
might not afford access to the Nyassa district. It was at last arranged
that the Bishop should first go with the Doctor to the Rovuma, and
thereafter they should all go together to the Shiré. In waiting for
Bishop Mackenzie to accompany him, Dr. Livingstone lost the most
favorable part of the season, and found that he could not get with the
"Pioneer" to the top of the Rovuma. He might have left the ship and
pushed forward on foot; but, not to delay Bishop Mackenzie, he left the
Rovuma in the meantime, intending, after making arrangements with the
Bishop, to go to Nyassa, to find the point where the Rovuma left the
lake, if there were such a point, or, if not, get into its headwaters
and explore it downward.
Dr. Livingstone, as we have seen, welcomed the Mission right cordially,
for indeed it was what he had been most eagerly praying for, and he
believed that it would be the beginning of all blessing to Eastern and
Central Africa, and help to assimilate the condition of the East Coast
to that of the West The field for the cultivation of cotton which he had
discovered along the Shiré and Lake Nyassa was immense, above 400 miles
in length, and now it seemed as if commerce and Christianity were going
to take possession of it. But it was found that the turning-point of
prosperity had been reached, and it was his lot to encounter dark
reverses. The navigation of the Shiré was difficult, for the "Pioneer"
being deep in the water would often run aground. On these occasions the
Bishop, Mr. Scudamore, and Mr. Waller, the best and the bravest of the
missionary party, were ever ready with their help in hauling.
Livingstone was sometimes scandalized to see the Bishop toiling in the
hot sun, while some of his subordinates were reading or writing in the
cabin. As they proceeded up the Shiré it was seen that the promises of
assistance from the Portuguese Government were worse than fruitless.
Evidently the Portuguese traders were pushing the slave-trade with
greater eagerness than ever. Slave-hunting chiefs were marauding the
country, driving peaceful inhabitants before them, destroying their
crops, seizing on all the people they could lay hands on, and selling
them as slaves. The contrast to what Livingstone had seen on his last
journey was lamentable. All their prospects were overcast. How could
commerce or Christianity flourish in countries desolated by war?
Every reader of _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_ remembers the
frightful picture of the slave-sticks, and the row of men, women, and
children whom Livingstone and his companions set free. Nothing helped
more than this picture to rouse in English bosoms an intense horror of
the trade, and a burning sympathy with Livingstone and his friends.
Livingstone and the Bishop, with his party, had gone up the Shiré to
Chibisa's, and were halting at the village of Mbame, when a slave party
came along. The flight of the drivers, the liberation of eighty-four men
and women, and their reception by the good Bishop under his charge,
speedily followed. The aggressors were the neighboring warlike tribe of
Ajawa, and their victims were the Manganja, the inhabitants of the Shiré
Valley. The Bishop accepted the invitation of Chigunda, a Manganja
chief, to settle at Magomero. It was thought, however, desirable for the
Bishop and Livingstone first to visit the Ajawa chief, and try to turn
him from his murderous ways. The road was frightful--through burning
villages resounding with the wailings of women and the shouts of the
warriors. The Ajawa received the offered visit in a hostile spirit, and
the shout being raised that Chibisa had come--powerful chief with the
reputation of being a sorcerer--they fired on the Bishop's party and
compelled them, in self-defense, to fire in return. It was the first
time that Livingstone had ever been so attacked by natives, often though
they had threatened him. It was the first time he had had to repel an
attack with violence; so little was he thinking of such a thing that he
had not his rifle with him, and was obliged to borrow a revolver. The
encounter was hot and serious, but it ended in the Ajawa being driven
off without loss on the other side.
It now became a question for the Bishop in what relation he and his
party were to stand to these murderous and marauding Ajawa--whether they
should quietly witness their onslaughts or drive them from the country
and rescue the captive Manganja. Livingstone's advice to them was to be
patient, and to avoid taking part in the quarrels of the natives. He
then left them at Magomero, and returned to his companions on the Shiré.
For a time the Bishop's party followed Livingstone's advice, but
circumstances afterward occurred which constrained them to take a
different course, and led to very serious results in the history of
the Mission.
Writing to his son Robert, Livingstone thus describes the attack made by
the Ajawa on him, the Bishop, and the missionaries:
"The slave-hunters had induced a number of another tribe to
capture people for them. We came to this tribe while burning
three villages, and though we told them that we came
peaceably, and to talk with them, they saw that we were a
small party, and might easily be overcome, rushed at us and
shot their poisoned arrows. One fell between the Bishop and
me, and another whizzed between another man and me. We had to
drive them off, and they left that part of the country.
Before going near them the Bishop engaged in prayer, and
during the prayer we could hear the wail for the dead by some
Manganja probably thought not worth killing, and the shouts
of welcome home to these bloody murderers. It turned out that
they were only some sixty or seventy robbers, and not the
Ajawa tribe; so we had a narrow escape from being murdered.
"How are you doing? I fear from what I have observed of your
temperament that you will have to strive against fickleness.
Every one has his besetting fault--that is no disgrace to
him, but it is a disgrace if he do not find it out, and by
God's grace overcome it. I am not near to advise you what to
do, but whatever line of life you choose, resolve to stick to
it, and serve God therein to the last. Whatever failings you
are conscious of, tell them to your heavenly Father; strive
daily to master them and confess all to Him when conscious of
having gone astray. And may the good Lord of all impart all
the strength you need. Commit your way unto the Lord; trust
also in Him. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will
bless you."
Leaving the "Pioneer" at Chibisa's, on 6th August, 1861, Livingstone,
accompanied by his brother and Dr. Kirk, started for Nyassa with a
four-oared boat, which was carried by porters past the Murchison
Cataracts. On 23d September they sailed into Lake Nyassa, naming the
grand mountainous promontory at the end Cape Maclear, after
Livingstone's great friend the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape.
All about the lake was now examined with earnest eyes. The population
was denser than he had seen anywhere else. The people were civil, and
even friendly, but undoubtedly they were not handsome. At the north of
the lake they were lawless, and at one point the party were robbed in
the night--the first time such a thing had occurred in Livingstone's
African life[61]. Of elephants there was a great abundance,--indeed of
all animal and vegetable life.
[Footnote 61: In _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_, Livingstone gives a
grave account of the robbery. In his letters to his friends he makes fun
of it, as he did of the raid of the Boers. To Mr. F. Fitch he writes:
"You think I cannot get into a scrape.... For the first time in Africa
we were robbed. Expert thieves crept into our sleeping-places, about
four o'clock in the morning, and made off with what they could lay their
hands on. Sheer over-modesty ruined me. It was Sunday, and such a black
mass swarmed around our sail, which we used as a hut, that we could not
hear prayers. I had before slipped away a quarter of a mile to dress for
church, but seeing a crowd of women watching me through the reeds, I did
not change my old 'unmentionables,'--they were so old, I had serious
thoughts of converting them into--charity! Next morning nearly all our
spare clothing was walked off with, and there I was left by my modesty
nearly through at the knees, and no change of shirt, flannel, or
stockings. After that, don't say that I can't get into a scrape!" The
same letter thanks Mr. Fitch for sending him _Punch_, whom he deemed a
sound divine! On the same subject he wrote at another time, regretting
that _Punch_ did not reach him, especially a number in which notice was
taken of himself. "It never came. Who the miscreants are that steal them
I cannot divine, I would not grudge them a reading if they would only
send them on afterward. Perhaps binding the whole year's _Punches_ would
be the best plan; and then we need not label it 'Sermons in Lent,' or
'Tracts on Homoeopathy,' but you may write inside, as Dr. Buckland did
on his umbrella, 'Stolen from Dr. Livingstone.' We really enjoy them
very much. They are good against fever. The 'Essence of Parliament,' for
instance, is capital. One has to wade through an ocean of paper to get
the same information, without any of the fun. And by the time the
newspapers have reached us, most of the interest in public matters has
evaporated."]
But the lake slave-trade was going on at a dismal rate. An Arab dhow was
seen on the lake, but it kept well out of the way. Dr. Livingstone was
informed by Colonel Rigdy, late British Consul at Zanzibar, that 19,000
slaves from this Nyassa region alone passed annually through the
custom-house there. This was besides those landed at Portuguese slave
ports. In addition to those captured, thousands were killed or died of
their wounds or of famine, or perished in other ways, so that not
one-fifth of the victims became slaves--in the Nyassa district probably
not one-tenth. A small armed steamer on the lake might stop nearly the
whole of this wholesale robbery and murder.
Their stock of goods being exhausted, and no provisions being
procurable, the party had to return at the end of October. They had to
abandon the project of getting from the lake to the Rovuma, and
exploring eastward. They reached the ship on 8th November, 1861, having
suffered more from hunger than on any previous trip.
In writing to his friend Young, 28th November, 1861, Livingstone
expresses his joy at the news of the departure of the "Lady Nyassa;"
gives him an account of the lake, and of a terrific storm in which they
were nearly lost; describes the inhabitants, and the terrible
slave-trade--the only trade that was carried on in the district. It will
take them the best part of a year to put the ship on the lake, but it
will be such a blessing! He hopes the Government will pay for it, once
it is there.
The colonization project had not commended itself to Sir R. Murchison.
He had written of it sometime before: "Your colonization scheme does not
meet with supporters, it being thought that you must have much more hold
on the country before you attract Scotch families to emigrate and settle
there, and then die off, or become a burden to you and all concerned,
like the settlers of old at Darien." It was with much satisfaction that
Livingstone now wrote to his friend (25th November, 1861): "A Dr.
Stewart is sent out by the Free Church of Scotland to confer with me
about a Scotch Colony. You will guess my answer. Dr. Kirk is with me in
opinion, and if I could only get you out to take a trip up to the
plateau of Zomba, and over the uplands which surround Lake Nyassa, you
would give in too."
When the party returned to the ship they had a visit from Bishop
Mackenzie, who was in good spirits and had excellent hopes of the
Mission. The Ajawa had been defeated, and had professed a desire to be
at peace with the English. But Dr. Livingstone was not without
misgivings on this point. The details of the defeat of the Ajawa, in
which the missionaries had taken an active part, troubled him, as we
find from his private Journal. "The Bishop," he says (14th of November),
"takes a totally different view of the affair from what I do." There
were other points on which the utter inexperience of the missionaries,
and want of skill in dealing with the natives, gave him serious anxiety.
It is impossible not to see that even thus early, the Mission, in
Livingstone's eyes, had lost something of its bloom.
It was arranged that the "Pioneer" should go down to the mouth of the
Zambesi, to meet a man-of-war with provisions, and bring up the pieces
of the new lake vessel, the "Lady Nyassa," which was eagerly expected,
along with Mrs. Livingstone, Miss Mackenzie, the Bishop's sister, and
other members of the Mission party. An appointment was made for January
at the mouth of the river Ruo, a tributary of the Shiré, where the
Bishop was to meet them. He and Mr. Burrup, who had just arrived, were
meanwhile to explore the neighboring country.
The "Pioneer" was detained for five weeks on a shoal twenty miles below
Chibisa's, and here the first death occurred--the carpenter's mate
succumbed to fever. It was extremely irksome to suffer this long
detention, to think of fuel and provisions wasting, and salaries running
on, without one particle of progress. Livingstone was sensitive and
anxious. He speaks in his Journal of the difficulty of feeling resigned
to the Divine will in all things, and of believing that all things work
together for good to those that love God, He seems to have been troubled
at what had been said in some quarters of his treatment of members of
the Expedition. In private letters, in the Cape papers, in the home
papers, unfavorable representations of his conduct had been made. In one
case, a prosecution at law had been threatened. On New Year's Day, 1862,
he entered in his Journal an elaborate minute, as if for future use,
bearing on the conduct of the Expedition. He refers to the difficulty to
which civil expeditions are exposed, as compared with naval and
military, in the matter of discipline, owing to the inferior authority
and power of the chief. In the countries visited there is no enlightened
public opinion to support the commander, and newspapers at home are but
too ready to believe in his tyranny, and make themselves the champions
of any dawdling fellow who would fain be counted a victim of his
despotism. He enumerates the chief troubles to which his Expedition had
been exposed from such causes. Then he explains how, at the beginning,
to prevent collision, he had made every man independent in his own
department, wishing only, for himself, to be the means of making known
to the world what each man had done. His conclusion is a sad one, but it
explains why in his last journeys he went alone: he is convinced that if
he had been by himself he would have accomplished more, and undoubtedly
he would have received more of the approbation of his countrymen[62].
[Footnote 62: Notwithstanding this expression of feeling, Dr.
Livingstone was very sincere in his handsome acknowledgments, in the
Introduction to _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_, of valuable services,
especially from the members of the Expedition there named.]
At length the "Pioneer" was got off the bank, and on the 11th January,
1862, they entered the Zambesi. They prided to the great Luabo mouth, as
being more advantageous than the Kongone for a supply of wood. They were
a month behind their appointment, and no ship was to be seen. The ship
had been there, it turned out, on the 8th January, had looked eagerly
for the "Pioneer," had fancied it saw the black funnel and its smoke in
the river, and being disappointed had made for Mozambique, been caught
in a gale, and was unable to return for three weeks. Livingstone's
letters show him a little out of sorts at the manifold obstructions that
had always been making him "too late"--"too late for Rovuma below, too
late for Rovuma above, and now too late for our own appointment," but in
greater trouble because the "Lady Nyassa" had not been sent by sea, as
he had strongly urged, and as it afterward appeared might have been done
quite well. To take out the pieces and fit them up would involve heavy
expense and long delay, and perhaps the season would be lost again. But
Livingstone had always a saving clause, in all his lamentations, and
here it is: "I know that all was done for the best."
At length, on the last day of January, H.M.S. "Gorgon," with a brig in
tow, hove in sight. When the "Pioneer" was seen, up went the signal from
the "Gorgon"--"I have steamboat in the brig"; to which Livingstone
replied--"Welcome news." Then "Wife aboard" was signaled from the ship.
"Accept my best thanks" concluded what Livingstone called "the most
interesting conversation he had engaged in for many a day." Next morning
the "Pioneer" steamed out, and Dr. Livingstone found his wife "all
right." In the same ship with Mrs. Livingstone, besides Miss Mackenzie
and Mrs. Burrup, the Rev. E. Hawkins and others of the Universities
Mission, had come the Rev. James Stewart, of the Free Church of Scotland
(now Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, South Africa), who had been sent out by
a committee of that Church, "to meet with Dr. Livingstone, and obtain,
by personal observation and otherwise, the information that might be
necessary to enable a committee at home to form a correct judgment as to
the possibility of founding a mission in that part of Africa." It
happened that some time before Mr. Stewart had been tutor to Thomas
Livingstone, while studying in Glasgow; this drew his sympathies to
Livingstone and Africa, and was another link in that wonderful chain
which Providence was making for the good of Africa. From Dr. Stewart's
"Recollections of Dr. Livingstone and the Zambesi" in the _Sunday
Magazine_ (November, 1874), we get the picture from the other side.
First, the sad disappointment of Mrs. Livingstone on the 8th January,
when no "Pioneer" was to be found, with the anxious speculations raised
in its absence as to the cause. Then a frightful tornado on the way to
Mozambique, and the all but miraculous escape of the brig. Then the
return to the Zambesi in company with H.M.S. "Gorgon," and on the 1st of
February, in a lovely morning, the little cloud of smoke rising close to
land, and afterward the white hull of a small paddle steamer making
straight for the two ships outside.
"As the vessel approached," says Dr. Stewart, "I could make
out with a glass a firmly built man of about the middle
height, standing on the port paddle-box, and directing the
ship's course. He was not exactly dressed as a naval officer,
but he wore that gold-laced cap which has since become so
well known both at home and in Africa. This was Dr.
Livingstone, and I said to his wife, 'There he is at last.'
She looked brighter at this announcement than I had seen her
do any day for seven months before."
Through the help of the men of the "Gorgon," the sections of the "Lady
Nyassa" were speedily put on board the "Pioneer," and on the 10th
February the vessel steamed off for the mouth of the Ruo, to meet the
Bishop. But its progress through the river was miserable. Says
Dr. Stewart:
"For ten days we were chiefly occupied in sailing or hauling
the ship through sand-banks. The steamer was drawing between
five and six feet of water, and though there were long
reaches in the river with depth sufficient for a ship of
larger draught, yet every now and then we found ourselves in
shoal water of about three feet. No sooner was the boat got
off one bank by might and main, and steady hauling on capstan
and anchor laid out ahead, almost never astern, and we got a
few miles of fair steering, than again we heard that sound,
abhorred by all of us--a slight bump of the bow, and rush of
sand along the ship's side, and we were again fast for a few
hours, or a day or two, as the case might be."
The "Pioneer" was overladen, and the plan had to be changed. It was
resolved to put the "Lady Nyassa" together at Shupanga, and tow her up
to the Rapids.
"The detention," says Dr. Stewart, "was very trying to Dr.
Livingstone, as it meant not a few weeks, but the loss of a
year, inasmuch as by the time the ship was ready to be
launched the river would be nearly at its lowest, and there
would be no resource but to wait for the next rainy season.
Yet, in the face of discouragement, he maintained his
cheerfulness, and, after sunset, still enjoyed many an hour
of prolonged talk about current events at home, about his old
College days in Glasgow, and about many of those who were
unknown men then, but have since made their mark in life in
the different paths they have taken. Amongst others his old
friend Mr. Young, of Kelly, or Sir Paraffin, as he used
subsequently to call him, came in for a large share of the
conversation."
Meanwhile Captain Wilson (of the "Gorgon"), accompanied by Dr. Kirk and
others, had gone on in boats with Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, and
learned the sad fate of the Bishop and Mr. Burrup. It appeared that the
Bishop, accompanied by the Makololo, had gone forth on an expedition to
rescue the captive husbands of some of the Manganja women, and had been
successful. But as the Bishop was trying to get to the mouth of the Ruo,
his canoe was upset, his medicines and cordials were lost, and, being
seized with fever, after languishing for some time, he died in
distressing circumstances, on the 31st January, Mr. Burrup, who was with
him, and who was also stricken, was carried back to Magomero, and died
in a few days.
Captain Wilson, who had himself been prostrated by fever, and made a
narrow escape, returned with this sad news, three weeks after he had
left Shupanga, bringing the two broken-hearted ladies, who had expected
to be welcomed, the one by her brother, the other by her husband. It was
a great blow to Livingstone.
"It was difficult to say," writes Dr. Stewart, "whether he or
the unhappy ladies, on whom the blow fell with the most
personal weight, were most to be pitied. He felt the
responsibility, and saw the wide-spread dismay which the news
would occasion when it reached England, and at the very time
when the Mission most needed support. 'This will hurt us
all,' he said, as he sat resting his head on his hand, on the
table of the dimly-lighted little cabin of the 'Pioneer,' His
esteem for Bishop Mackenzie was afterward expressed in this
way: 'For unselfish goodness of heart and earnest devotion to
the work he had undertaken, it can safely be said that none
of the commendations of his friends can exceed the reality,'
He did what he could, I believe, to comfort those who were so
unexpectedly bereaved; but the night he spent must have been
an uneasy one."
Livingstone says in his book that the unfavorable judgment which he had
formed of the Bishop's conduct in fighting with the Ajawa was somewhat
modified by a natural instinct, when he saw how keenly the Bishop was
run down for it in England, and reflected more on the circumstances, and
thought how excellent a man he was. Sometimes he even said that, had he
been there, he would probably have done what the Bishop did[63]. Why,
then, it may be asked, was Livingstone so ill-pleased when it was said
that all that the Bishop had done was done by his advice? No one will
ask this question who reads the terms of a letter by Mr. Rowley, one of
the Mission party, first published in the Cape papers, and copied into
the _Times_ in November, 1862. It was said there that "from the moment
when Livingstone commenced the release of slaves, his course was one of
aggression. He hunted for slaving parties in every direction, and when
he heard of the Ajawa making slaves in order to sell to the slavers, he
went designedly in search of them, and intended to take their captives
from them by force if needful. It is true that when he came upon them he
found them to be a more powerful body than he expected, and had they not
fired first, he might have withdrawn.... His parting words to the chiefs
just before he left ... were to this effect: 'You have hitherto seen us
only as fighting men but it is not in such a character we wish you to
know us[64].'" How could Livingstone be otherwise than indignant to be
spoken of as if the use of force had been his habit, while the whole
tenor of his life had gone most wonderfully to show the efficacy of
gentle and brotherly treatment? How could he but be vexed at having the
odium of the whole proceedings thrown on him, when his last advice to
the missionaries had been disregarded by them? Or how could he fail to
be concerned at the discredit which the course ascribed to him must
bring upon the Expedition under his command, which was entirely separate
from the Mission? It was the unhandsome treatment of himself and
reckless periling of the character and interests of his Expedition in
order to shield others, that raised his indignation. "Good Bishop
Mackenzie," he wrote to his friend Mr. Fitch, "would never have tried to
screen himself by accusing me." In point of fact, a few years afterward
the Portuguese Government, through Mr. Lacerda, when complaining
bitterly of the statements of Livingstone in a speech at Bath, in 1865,
referred to Mr. Rowley's letter as bearing out their complaint. It
served admirably to give an unfavorable view of his aims and methods,
_as from one of his own allies_. Dr. Livingstone never allowed himself
to cherish any other feeling but that of high regard for the self-denial
and Christian heroism of the Bishop, and many of his coadjutors; but he
did feel that most of them were ill-adapted for their work and had a
great deal to learn, and that the manner in which he had been turned
aside from the direct objects of his own enterprise by having to look
after so many inexperienced men, and then blamed for what he deprecated,
and what was done in his absence, was rather more than it was reasonable
for him to bear[65].
[Footnote 63: Writing to Mr. Waller, 12th February, 1863, Dr.
Livingstone said: "I thought you wrong in attacking the Ajawa, till I
looked on it as defense of your orphans. I thought that you had shut
yourselves up to one tribe, and that, the Manganja; but I think
differently now, and only wish they would send out Dr. Pusey here. He
would learn a little sense, of which I suppose I have need myself."]
[Footnote 64: Mr. Rowley afterward (February 22, 1865) expressed his
regret that this letter was ever written, as it had produced an
ill-effect. See _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_, p. 475 _note_.]
[Footnote 65: It must not be supposed that the letter of Mr. Rowley
expressed the mind of his brethren. Some of them were greatly annoyed at
it, and used their influence to induce its author to write to the Cape
papers that he had conveyed a wrong impression. In writing to Sir Thomas
Maclear (20th November, 1862), after seeing Rowley's letter in the Cape
papers, Dr. Livingstone said: "It is untrue that I ever on anyone
occasion adopted an aggressive policy against the Ajawa, or took slaves
from them. Slaves were taken from Portuguese alone. I never hunted the
Ajawa, or took the part of Manganja against Ajawa. In this I believe
every member of the Mission will support my assertion." Livingstone
declined to write a contradiction _to the public prints_, because he
knew the harm that would be done by a charge against a clergyman. In
this he showed the same magnanimity and high Christian self-denial which
he had shown when he left Mabotsa. It was only when the Portuguese
claimed the benefit of Rowley's testimony that he let the public see
what its value was.]
Writing of the terrible loss of Mackenzie and Burrup to the Bishop of
Cape Town, Livingstone says: "The blow is quite bewildering; the two
strongest men so quickly cut down, and one of them, humanly speaking,
indispensable to the success of the enterprise. We must bow to the will
of Him who doeth all things well; but I cannot help feeling sadly
disturbed in view of the effect the news may have at home. _I shall not
swerve a hairbreadth from my work while life is spared_, and I trust
the supporters of the Mission may not shrink back from all that they
have set their hearts to."
The next few weeks were employed in taking Miss Mackenzie and Mrs.
Burrup to the "Gorgon" on their way home. It was a painful voyage to
all--to Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone, to Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, and
last, not least, to Captain Wilson, who had been separated so long from
his ship, and had risked life, position, and everything, to do service
to a cause which in spite of all he left at a much lower ebb.
When the "Pioneer" arrived at the bar, it found that owing to the
weather the ship had been forced to leave the coast, and she did not
return for a fortnight. There was thus another long waiting from 17th
March to 2d April. Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone then returned to Shupanga.
The long detention in the most unhealthy season of the year, and when
fever was at its height, was a sad, sad calamity.
We are now arrived at the last illness and the death of Mrs.
Livingstone. After she had parted from her husband at the Cape in the
spring of 1858, she returned with her parents to Kuruman, and in
November gave birth there to her youngest child, Anna Mary. Thereafter
she returned to Scotland to be near her other children. Some of them
were at school. No comfortable home for them all could be formed, and
though many friends were kind, the time was not a happy one. Mrs.
Livingstone's desire to be with her husband was intense; not only the
longings of an affectionate heart, and the necessity of taking counsel
with him about the family, but the feeling that when over-shadowed by
one whose faith was so strong her fluttering heart would regain, its
steady tone, and she would be better able to help both him and the
children, gave vehemence to this desire. Her letters to her husband tell
of much spiritual darkness; his replies were the very soul of tenderness
and Christian earnestness. Providence seemed to favor her wish; the
vessel in which she sailed was preserved from imminent destruction, and
she had the great happiness of finding her husband alive and well.
On the 21st of April Mrs. Livingstone became ill. On the 25th the
symptoms were alarming--vomitings every quarter of an hour, which
prevented any medicine from remaining on her stomach. On the 26th she
was worse and delirious. On the evening of Sunday the 27th Dr. Stewart
got a message from her husband that the end was drawing near. "He was
sitting by the side of a rude bed formed of boxes, but covered with a
soft mattress, on which lay his dying wife. All consciousness had now
departed, as she was in a state of deep coma, from which all efforts to
rouse her had been unavailing. The strongest medical remedies and her
husband's voice were both alike powerless to reach the spirit which was
still there, but was now so rapidly sinking into the depths of slumber,
and darkness and death. The fixedness of feature and the oppressed and
heavy breathing only made it too plain that the end was near. And the
man who had faced so many deaths, and braved so many dangers, was now
utterly broken down and weeping like a child."
Dr. Livingstone asked Dr. Stewart to commend her spirit to God, and
along with Dr. Kirk they kneeled in prayer beside her. In less than an
hour, her spirit had returned to God. Half an hour after, Dr. Stewart
was struck with her likeness to her father, Dr. Moffat. He was afraid to
utter what struck him so much, but at last he said to Livingstone, "Do
you notice any change?" "Yes," he replied, without raising his eyes from
her face,--"the very features and expression of her father."
Every one is struck with the calmness of Dr. Livingstone's notice of his
wife's death in _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_. Its matter-of-fact
tone only shows that he regarded that book as a sort of official report
to the nation, in which it would not be becoming for him to introduce
personal feelings. A few extracts from his Journal and letters will show
better the state of his heart.
"It is the first heavy stroke I have suffered, and quite takes away my
strength. I wept over her who well deserved many tears. I loved her when
I married her, and the longer I lived with her I loved her the more. God
pity the poor children, who were all tenderly attached to her, and I am
left alone in the world by one whom I felt to be a part of myself. I
hope it may, by divine grace, lead me to realize heaven as my home, and
that she has but preceded me in the journey. Oh my Mary, my Mary! how
often we have longed for a quiet home, since you and I were cast adrift
at Kolobeng; surely the removal by a kind Father who knoweth our frame
means that He rewarded you by taking you to the best home, the eternal
one in the heavens. The prayer was found in her papers--'Accept me,
Lord, as I am, and make me such as Thou wouldst have me to be.' He who
taught her to value this prayer would not leave his own work unfinished.
On a letter she had written, 'Let others plead for pensions, I wrote to
a friend I can be rich without money; I would give my services in the
world from uninterested motives; I have motives for my own conduct I
would not exchange for a hundred pensions.'
"She rests by the large baobab-tree at Shupanga, which is sixty feet in
circumference, and is mentioned in the work of Commodore Owen. The men
asked to be _allowed_ to mount guard till we had got the grave built up,
and we had it built with bricks dug from an old house.
"From her boxes we find evidence that she intended to make us all
comfortable at Nyassa, though she seemed to have a presentiment of an
early death,--she purposed to do more for me than ever.
"11_th May, Kongone_.--My dear, dear Mary has been this evening a
fortnight in heaven,--absent from the body, present with the Lord.
To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. Angels carried her to
Abraham's bosom--to be with Christ is far better. Enoch, the seventh
from Adam, prophesied, 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his
saints'; ye also shall appear with Him in glory. He comes with them;
then they are now with Him. I go to prepare a place for you; that where
I am there ye may be also, to behold his glory. Moses and Elias talked
of the decease He should accomplish at Jerusalem; then they know what is
going on here on certain occasions. They had bodily organs to hear and
speak. For the first time in my life I feel willing to die.--D.L."
"_May_ 19, 1862.--Vividly do I remember my first passage down in 1856,
passing Shupanga house without landing, and looking at its red hills and
white vales with the impression that it was a beautiful spot. No
suspicion glanced across my mind that there my loving wife would be
called to give up the ghost six years afterward. In some other spot I
may have looked at, my own resting-place may be allotted. I have often
wished that it might be in some far-off still deep forest, where I may
sleep sweetly till the resurrection morn, when the trump of God will
make all start up into the glorious and active second existence.
"25_th May_.--Some of the histories of pious people in the last century
and previously tell of clouds of religious gloom, or of paroxysms of
opposition and fierce rebellion against God, which found vent in
terrible expressions. These were followed by great elevations of faith,
and reactions of confiding love, the results of divine influence which
carried the soul far above the region of the intellect into that of
direct spiritual intuition. This seems to have been the experience of my
dear Mary. She had a strong presentiment of death being near. She said
that she would never have a house in this country. Taking it to be
despondency alone, I only joked, and now my heart smites me that I did
not talk seriously on that and many things besides.
"31_st May_, 1862.--The loss of my ever dear Mary lies like a heavy
weight on my heart. In our intercourse in private there was more than
what would be thought by some a decorous amount of merriment and play. I
said to her a few days before her fatal illness: 'We old bodies ought
now to be more sober, and not play so much.' 'Oh, no,' said she,' you
must always be as playful as you have always been; I would not like you
to be as grave as some folks I have seen.' This, when I know her prayer
was that she might be spared to be a help and comfort to me in my great
work, led me to feel what I have always believed to be the true way, to
let the head grow wise, but keep the heart always young and playful. She
was ready and anxious to work, but has been called away to serve God in
a higher sphere."
Livingstone could not be idle, even when his heart was broken; he
occupied the days after the death in writing to her father and mother,
to his children, and to many of the friends who would be interested in
the sad news. Among these letters, that to Mrs. Moffat and her reply
from Kuruman have a special interest. His letters went round by Europe,
and the first news reached Kuruman by traders and newspapers. For a full
month after her daughters death, Mrs. Moffat was giving thanks for the
mercy that had spared her to meet with her husband, and had made her lot
so different from that of Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup. In a letter,
dated 26th May, she writes to Mary a graphic account of the electrical
thrill that passed through her when she saw David's handwriting--of the
beating heart with which she tried to get the essence of his letter
before she read the lines--of the overwhelming joy and gratitude with
which she learned that they had met--and then the horror of great
darkness that came over her when she read of the tragic death of the
Bishop, to whom she had learned to feel as to a friend and brother. Then
she pours out her tears over the "poor dear ladies, Miss Mackenzie and
Mrs. Burrup," and remembers the similar fate of the Helmores, who, like
the Bishop and his friends, had had it in their hearts to build a temple
to the Lord in Africa, but had not been permitted. Then comes some
family news, especially about her son Robert, whose sudden death
occurred a few days after, and was another bitter drop in the family
cup. And then some motherly forecastings of her daughter's future,
kindly counsel where she could offer any, and affectionate prayers for
the guidance of God where the future was too dark for her to penetrate.
For a whole month before this letter was written, poor Mary had been
sleeping under the baobab-tree at Shupanga!
In Livingstone's letter to Mrs. Moffat he gives the details of her
illness, and pours his heart out in the same affectionate terms as in
his Journal. He dwells on the many unhappy causes of delay which had
detained them near the mouth of the river, contrary to all his wishes
and arrangements. He is concerned that her deafness (through quinine)
and comatose condition before her death prevented her from giving him
the indications he would have desired respecting her state of mind in
the view of eternity.
"I look," he says, "to her previous experience and life for comfort, and
thank God for his mercy that we have it.... A good wife and mother was
she. God have pity on the children--she was so much beloved by them....
She was much respected by all the officers of the 'Gorgon,'--they would
do anything for her. When they met this vessel at Mozambique, Captain
Wilson offered his cabin in that fine large vessel, but she insisted
rather that Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup should go.... I enjoyed her
society during the three months we were together. It was the Lord who
gave and He has taken away. I wish to say--Blessed be his name. I
regret, as there always are regrets after our loved ones are gone, that
the slander which, unfortunately, reached her ears from missionary
gossips and others had an influence on me in allowing her to come,
before we were fairly on Lake Nyassa. A doctor of divinity said, when
her devotion to her family was praised: 'Oh, she is no good, she is here
because her husband cannot live with her,' The last day will tell
another tale."
To his daughter Agnes he writes, after the account of her death: "...
Dear Nannie, she often thought of you, and when once, from the violence
of the disease, she was delirious, she called out, 'See! Agnes is
falling down a precipice,' May our Heavenly Saviour, who must be your
Father and Guide, preserve you from falling into the gulf of sin over
the precipice of temptation.... Dear Agnes, I feel alone in the world
now, and what will the poor dear baby do without her mamma? She often
spoke of her, and sometimes burst into a flood of tears, just as I now
do in taking up and arranging the things left by my beloved partner of
eighteen years.... I bow to the Divine hand that chastens me. God grant
that I may learn the lesson He means to teach! All she told you to do
she now enforces, as if beckoning from heaven. Nannie, dear, meet her
there. Don't lose the crown of joy she now wears, and the Lord be
gracious to you in all things. You will now need to act more and more
from a feeling of responsibility to Jesus, seeing He has taken away one
of your guardians. A right straightforward woman was she. No crooked way
ever hers, and she could act with decision and energy when required. I
pity you on receiving this, but it is the Lord.--Your sorrowing and
lonely father."
Letters of the like tenor were written to every intimate friend. It was
a relief to his heart to pour itself out in praise of her who was gone,
and in some cases, when he had told all about the death, he returns to
speak of her life. A letter to Sir Roderick Murchison gives all the
particulars of the illness and its termination. Then he thinks of the
good and gentle Lady Murchison,--"la spirituelle Lady Murchison," as
Humboldt called her,--and writes to her: "It will somewhat ease my
aching heart to tell you about my dear departed Mary Moffat, the
faithful companion of eighteen years." He tells of her birth at Griqua
Town in 1821, her education in England, their marriage and their love.
"At Kolobeng, she managed all the household affairs by native servants
of her own training, made bread, butter, and all the clothes of the
family; taught her children most carefully; kept also an infant and
sewing school--by far the most popular and best attended we had. It was
a fine sight to see her day by day walking a quarter of a mile to the
town, no matter how broiling hot the sun, to impart instruction to the
heathen Bakwains. Ma-Robert's name is known through all that country,
and 1800 miles beyond.... A brave, good woman was she. All my hopes of
giving her one day a quiet home, for which we both had many a sore
longing, are now dashed to the ground. She is, I trust, through divine
mercy, in peace in the home of the blest.... She spoke feelingly of your
kindness to her, and also of the kind reception she received from Miss
Burdett Coutts. Please give that lady and Mrs. Brown the sad
intelligence of her death."
The reply of Mrs. Moffat to her son-in-law's letter was touching and
beautiful. "I do thank you for the detail you have given us of the
circumstances of the last days and hours of our lamented and beloved
Mary, our first-born, over whom our fond hearts first beat with parental
affection!" She recounts the mercies that were mingled with the
trial--though Mary could not be called _eminently_ pious, she had the
root of the matter in her, and though the voyage of her life had been a
trying and stormy one, she had not become a wreck. God had remembered
her; had given her during her last year the counsels of faithful
men--referring to her kind friend and valued counselor, the Rev.
Professor Kirk, of Edinburgh, and the Rev. Dr. Stewart, of
Lovedale--and, at last, the great privilege of dying in the arms of her
husband. "As for the cruel scandal that seems to have hurt you both so
much, those who said it did not know you _as a couple_. In all _our_
intercourse with you, we never had a doubt as to your being comfortable
together. I know there are some maudlin ladies who insinuate, when a man
leaves his family frequently, no matter how noble is his object, that he
is not _comfortable_ at home. But we can afford to smile at this, and
say, 'The Day will declare it.'...
"Now my dear Livingstone, I must conclude by assuring you of the tender
interest we shall ever feel in your operations. It is not only as the
husband of our departed Mary and the father of her children, but as one
who has laid himself out for the emancipation of this poor wretched
continent, and for opening new doors of entrance for the heralds of
salvation (not that I would not have preferred your remaining in your
former capacity). I nevertheless rejoice in what you are allowed to
accomplish. We look anxiously for more news of you, and my heart bounded
when I saw your letters the other day, thinking they were new. May our
gracious God and Father comfort your sorrowful heart.--Believe me ever
your affectionate mother, "MARY MOFFAT."
CHAPTER XV.
LAST TWO YEARS OF THE EXPEDITION.
A.D. 1862-1863.
Livingstone again buckles on his armor--Letter to Waller--Launch of
"Lady Nyassa"--Too late for season--He explores the Rovuma--Fresh
activity of the slave-trade--Letter to Governor of Mozambique about his
discoveries--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--Generous offer of a party of
Scotchmen--The Expedition proceeds up Zambesi with "Lady Nyassa" in
tow--Appalling desolations of Marianne--Tidings of the Mission--Death of
Scudamore--of Dickenson--of Thornton--Illness of Livingstone--Dr. Kirk
and Charles Livingstone go home--He proceeds northward with Mr. Rae and
Mr. E.D. Young of the "Gorgon"--Attempt to carry a boat over the
rapids--Defeated--Recall of the Expedition--Livingstone's views--Letter
to Mr. James Young--to Mr. Waller--Feeling of the Portuguese
Government--Offer to the Rev. Dr. Stewart--Great discouragements--Why
did he not go home?--Proceeds to explore Nyassa--Risks and
sufferings--Occupation of his mind--Natural History--Obliged to turn
back--More desolation--Report of his murder--Kindness of
Chinsamba--Reaches the ship--Letter from Bishop Tozer, abandoning the
Mission--Distress of Livingstone--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--Progress
of Dr. Stewart--Livingstonia--Livingstone takes charge of the children
of the Universities Mission--Letter to his daughter--Retrospect--The
work of the Expedition--Livingstone's plans for the future.
It could not have been easy for Livingstone to buckle on his armor anew.
How he was able to do it at all may be inferred from some words of cheer
written by him at the time to his friend Mr. Waller: "Thanks for your
kind sympathy. In return, I say, Cherish exalted thoughts of the great
work you have undertaken. It is a work which, if faithful, you will look
back on with satisfaction while the eternal ages roll on their
everlasting course. The devil will do all he can to hinder you by
efforts from without and from within; but remember Him who is with you,
and will be with you alway."
As soon as he was able to brace himself, he was again at his post,
helping to put the "Lady Nyassa" together and launch her. This was
achieved by the end of June, greatly to the wonder of the natives, who
could not understand how iron should swim. The "Nyassa" was an excellent
steamboat, and could she have been got to the lake would have done well.
But, alas! the rainy season had passed, and until December this could
not be done. Here was another great disappointment. Meanwhile, Dr.
Livingstone resolved to renew the exploration of the Rovuma, in the hope
of finding a way to Nyassa beyond the dominion of the Portuguese. This
was the work in which he had been engaged at the time when he went with
Bishop Mackenzie to help him to settle.
The voyage up the Rovuma did not lead to much. On one occasion they were
attacked, fiercely and treacherously, by the natives. Cataracts occurred
about 156 miles from the mouth, and the report was that farther up they
were worse. The explorers did not venture beyond the banks of the
rivers, but so far as they saw, the people were industrious, and the
country fertile, and a steamer of light draft might carry on a very
profitable trade among them. But there was no water-way to Nyassa. The
Rovuma came from mountains to the west, having only a very minute
connection with Nyassa. It seemed that it would be better in the
meantime to reach the lake by the Zambesi and the Shiré, so the party
returned. It was not till the beginning of 1863 that they were able to
renew the ascent of these rivers. Livingstone writes touchingly to Sir
Roderick, in reference to his returning to the Zambesi: "It may seem to
some persons weak to feel a chord vibrating to the dust of her who rests
on the banks of the Zambesi, and think that the path by that river is
consecrated by her remains."
Meanwhile, Dr. Livingstone was busy with his pen. A new energy had been
imparted to him by the appalling facts now fully apparent, that his
discoveries had only stimulated the activity of the slave-traders, that
the Portuguese local authorities really promoted slave-trading, with its
inevitable concomitant slave-hunting, and that the horror and desolation
to which the country bore such frightful testimony was the result. It
seemed as if the duel he had fought with the Boers when they determined
to close Africa, and he determined to open it, had now to be repeated
with the Portuguese. The attention of Dr. Livingstone is more and more
concentrated on this terrible topic. Dr. Kirk writes to him that when at
Tette he had heard that the Portuguese Governor-General at Mozambique
had instructed his brother, the Governor of that town, to act on the
principle that the slave-trade, though prohibited on the ocean, was
still lawful on the land, and that any persons interfering with
slave-traders, by liberating their slaves, would be counted robbers. An
energetic despatch to Earl Russell, then Foreign Secretary, calls
attention to this outrage.
A few days after, a strong but polite letter is sent to the Governor of
Tette, calling attention to the forays of a man named Belshore, in the
Chibisa country, and entreating him to stop them. About the same time he
writes to the Governor-General of Mozambique in reply to a paper by the
Viscount de Sa da Bandeira, published in the Almanac by the Government
press, in which the common charge was made against him of arrogating to
himself the glory of discoveries which belonged to Senhor Candido and
other Portuguese. He affirms that before publishing his book he examined
all Portuguese books of travels he could find; that he had actually
shown Senhor Candido to have been a discoverer before any Portuguese
hinted that he was such; that the lake which Candido spoke of as
northwest of Tette could not be Nyassa, which was northeast of it; that
he did full justice to all the Portuguese explorers, and that what he
claimed as own discoveries were certainly not the discoveries of the
Portuguese. A few days after, he writes to Mr. Layard, then our
Portuguese Minister, and comments on the map published by the Viscount
as representing Portuguese geography,--pointing out such blunders as
that which made the Zambesi enter the sea at Quilimane, proving that by
their map the Portuguese claimed territory that was certainly not
theirs; adverting to their utter ignorance of the Victoria Falls, the
most remarkable phenomenon in Africa; affirming that many so-called
discoveries were mere vague rumors, heard by travelers; and showing the
use that had been made of his own maps, the names being changed to suit
the Portuguese orthography.
Livingstone had the satisfaction of knowing that his account of the trip
to Lake Nyassa had excited much interest in the Cabinet at home, and
that a strong remonstrance had been addressed to the Portuguese
Government against slave-hunting. But it does not appear that this led
to any improvement at the time.
While stung into more than ordinary energy by the atrocious deeds he
witnessed around him, Livingstone was living near the borders of the
unseen world. He writes to Sir Thomas Maclear on the 27th October, 1862:
"I suppose that I shall die in these uplands, and somebody
will carry, out the plan I have longed to put into practice.
I have been thinking a great deal since the departure of my
beloved one about the regions whither she has gone, and
imagine from the manner the Bible describes it we have got
too much monkery in our ideas. There will be work there as
well as here, and possibly not such a vast difference in our
being as is expected. But a short time there will give more
insight than a thousand musings. We shall see Him by whose
inexpressible love and mercy we get there, and all whom we
loved, and all the lovable. I can sympathize with you now
more fully than I did before. I work with as much vigor as I
can; and mean to do so till the change comes; but his
prospect of a home is all dispelled."
In one of his despatches to Lord Russell, Livingstone reports an offer
that had been made by a party consisting of an Englishman and five
Scotch working men at the Cape, which must have been extremely
gratifying to him, and served to deepen his conviction that sooner or
later his plan of colonization would certainly be carried into effect.
The leader of the party, John Jehan, formerly of the London City
Mission, in reading Dr. Livingstone's book, became convinced that if a
few mechanics could be induced to take a journey of exploration it would
prove very useful. His views being communicated to five other young men
(two masons, two carpenters, one smith), they formed themselves into a
company in July, 1861, and had been working together, throwing their
earnings into a common fund, and now they had arms, two wagons, two
spans of oxen, and means of procuring outfits. In September, 1862, they
were ready to start from Aliwal in South Africa[66].
[Footnote 66: The recall of Livingstone's Expedition and the removal of
the Universities Mission seem to have knocked this most promising scheme
on the head. Writing of it to Sir Roderick Murchison on the 14th
December, 1862, he says: "I like the Scotchmen, and think them much
better adapted for our plans than those on whom the Universities Mission
has lighted. If employed as I shall wish them to be in trade, and
setting an example of industry in cotton or coffee planting, I think
they are just the men I need brought to my band. Don't you think this
sensible?"]
After going to Johanna for provisions, and to discharge the crew of
Johanna men whose term of service had expired, the Expedition returned
to Tette. On the 10th January, 1863, they steamed off with the "Lady
Nyassa" in tow. The desolation that had been caused by Marianno, the
Portuguese slave-agent, was heart-breaking. Corpses floated past them.
In the morning the paddles had to be cleared of corpses caught by the
floats during the night. Livingstone summed up his impressions in one
terrible sentence:
"Wherever we took a walk, human skeletons were seen in every direction,
and it was painfully interesting to observe the different postures in
which the poor wretches had breathed their last. A whole heap had been
thrown down a slope behind a village, where the fugitives often crossed
the river from the east; and in one hut of the same village no fewer
than twenty drums had been collected, probably the ferryman's fees. Many
had ended their misery under shady trees, others under projecting crags
in the hills, while others lay in their huts with closed doors, which
when opened disclosed the mouldering corpse with the poor rags round the
loins, the skull fallen off the pillow, the little skeleton of the
child, that had perished first, rolled up in a mat between two large
skeletons. The sight of this desert, but eighteen months ago a
well-peopled valley, now literally strewn with human bones, forced the
conviction upon us that the destruction of human life in the middle
passage, however great, constitutes but a small portion of the waste,
and made us feel that unless the slave-trade--that monster iniquity
which has so long brooded over Africa--is put down, lawful commerce
cannot be established."
In passing up, Livingstone's heart was saddened as he visited the
Bishop's grave, and still more by the tidings which he got of the
Mission, which had now removed from Magomero to the low lands of
Chibisa. Some time before, Mr. Scudamore, a man greatly beloved, had
succumbed, and now Mr. Dickenson was added to the number of victims. Mr.
Thornton, too, who left the Expedition in 1859, but returned to it, died
under an attack of fever, consequent on too violent exertion undertaken
in order to be of service to the Mission party. Dr. Kirk and Mr. C.
Livingstone were so much reduced by illness that it was deemed necessary
for them to return to England. Livingstone himself had a most serious
attack of fever, which lasted all the month of May, Dr. Kirk remaining
with him till he got over it. When his brother and Dr. Kirk left, the
only Europeans remaining with him were Mr. Rae, the ship's engineer,
and Mr. Edward D. Young, formerly of the "Gorgon," who had volunteered
to join the Expedition, and whose after services, both in the search for
Livingstone and in establishing the mission of Livingstonia, were so
valuable. On the noble spirit shown by Livingstone in remaining in the
country after all his early companions had left, and amid such appalling
scenes as everywhere met him, we do not need to dwell.
Here are glimpses of the inner heart of Livingstone about this time:
"1_st March_, 1863.--I feel very often that I have not long
to live, and say, 'My dear children, I leave you. Be manly
Christians, and never do a mean thing. Be honest to men, and
to the Almighty One.'"
"10_th April_.--Reached the Cataracts. Very thankful indeed
after our three months' toil from Shupanga."
"27_th April_.--On this day twelvemonths my beloved Mary
Moffat was removed from me by death.
"'If I can, I'll come again, mother, from out my resting-place;
Though you'll not see me, mother, I shall look upon your face;
Though I cannot speak a word, I shall hearken what you say,
And be often, often with you when you think I'm far away.'
"TENNYSON."
The "Lady Nyassa" being taken to pieces, the party began to construct a
road over the thirty-five or forty miles of the rapids, in order to
convey the steamer to the lake. After a few miles of the road had been
completed, it was thought desirable to ascertain whether the boat left
near the lake two years before was fit for service, so as to avoid the
necessity of carrying another boat past the rapids. On reaching it the
boat was found to have been burnt. The party therefore returned to carry
up another. They had got to the very last rapid, and had placed the boat
for a short space in the water, when, through the carelessness of five
Zambesi men, she was overturned, and away she went like an arrow down
the rapids. To keep calm under such a crowning disappointment must have
I taxed Livingstone's self-control to the very utmost.
It was now that he received a despatch from Earl Russell intimating
that the Expedition was recalled. This, though a great disappointment,
was not altogether a surprise. On the 24th April he had written to Mr.
Waller "I should not wonder in the least to be recalled, for should the
Portuguese persist in keeping the rivers shut, there would be no use in
trying to develop trade," He states his views on the recall calmly in a
letter to Mr. James Young:
"_Murchison Cataracts_, 3_d July_, 1863.--... Got
instructions for our recall yesterday, at which I do not
wonder. The Government has behaved well to us throughout, and
I feel abundantly thankful to H.M.'s ministers for enabling
me so far to carry on the experiment of turning the
industrial and trading propensities of the natives to good
account, with a view of thereby eradicating the trade in
slaves. But the Portuguese dogged our footsteps, and, as is
generally understood, with the approbation of their Home
Government, neutralized our labors. Not that the Portuguese
statesmen approved of slaving, but being enormously jealous
lest their pretended dominion from sea to sea and elsewhere
should in the least degree, now or any future time, become
aught else than a slave 'preserve,' the Governors have been
instructed, and have carried out their instructions further
than their employers intended. Major Sicard was removed from
Tette as too friendly, and his successor had emmissaries in
the Ajawa camp. Well, he saw their policy, and regretted that
they should be allowed to follow us into perfectly new
regions. The regret was the more poignant, inasmuch as but
for our entering in by gentleness, they durst not have gone.
No Portuguese dared, for instance, to come up this Shiré
Valley; but after our dispelling the fear of the natives by
fair treatment, they came in calling themselves our
'children.' The whole thing culminated when this quarter was
inundated with Tette slavers, whose operations, with a
marauding tribe of Ajawas, and a drought, completely
depopulated the country. The sight of this made me conclude
that unless something could be done to prevent these raids,
and take off their foolish obstructions on the rivers, which
they never use, our work in this region was at an end....
Please the Supreme, I shall work some other point yet. In
leaving, it is bitter to see some 900 miles of coast
abandoned to those who were the first to begin the
slave-trade, and seem determined to be the last to abandon
it."
Writing to Mr. Waller at this time he said: "I don't know whether I am
to go on the shelf or not. If I do, I make Africa the shelf. If the
'Lady Nyassa' is well sold, I shall manage. There is a Ruler above, and
his providence guides all things. He is our Friend, and has plenty of
work for all his people to do. Don't fear of being left idle, if willing
to work for Him. I am glad to her of Alington. If the work is of God it
will came out all right at last. To Him shall be given of the gold of
Sheba, and daily shall He be praised. I always think it was such a
blessing and privilege to be led into his work instead of into the
service of the hard taskmasters--the Devil and Sin."
The reason assigned by Earl Russell for the recall of the Expedition
were, that, not through any fault of Dr. Livingstone's, it had not
accomplished the objects for which it had been designed, and that it had
proved much more costly than was originally expected. Probably the
Government felt likewise that their remonstrances with the Portuguese
Government were unavailing, and that their relations were becoming too
uncomfortable. Even among those most friendly to Dr. Livingstone's great
aim, and most opposed to the slave-trade, and to the Portuguese policy
in Africa, there were some who doubted whether his proposed methods of
procedure were quite consistent with the rights of the Portuguese
Government. His Royal Highness the Prince-Consort indicated some feeling
of this kind in his interview with Livingstone in 1857. He expressed the
feeling more strongly when he declined the request, made to him through
Professor Sedgwick of Cambridge, that he would allow himself to be
Patron of the Universities Mission. Dr. Livingstone knew well that from
that exalted quarter his plans would receive no active support. That he
should have obtained the support he did from successive Governments and
successive Foreign Secretaries, Liberal and Conservative, was a great
gratification, if not something of a surprise. Hence the calmness with
which he received the intelligence of the recall. Toward the Portuguese
Government his feelings were not very sweet. On them lay the guilt of
arresting a work that would have conferred untold blessing on Africa. He
determined to make this known very clearly when he should return to
England. At a future period of his life, he purposed, if spared, to go
more fully into the reasons of his recall. Meanwhile, his course was
simply to acquiesce in the resolution of the British Government.
It was unfortunate that the recall took place before he had been able to
carry into effect his favorite scheme of placing a steamer on Lake
Nyassa; nor could he do this now, although the vessel on which he had
spent half his fortune lay at the Murchison Cataracts. He had always
cherished the hope that the Government would repay him at least a part
of the outlay, which, instead of £3000, as he had intended, had mounted
up to £6000. He had very generously told Dr. Stewart that if this should
be done, and if he should be willing to return from Scotland to labor on
the shores of Nyassa, he would pay him his expenses out, and £150
yearly, so anxious was he that he should begin the work. On the recall
of the Expedition, without any allowance for the ship, or even mention
of it, all these expectations and intentions came abruptly to an end.
At no previous time had Dr. Livingstone been under greater
discouragements than now. The Expedition had been recalled; his heart
had not recovered from the desolation caused by the death of the Bishop
and his brethren, as well as the Helmores in the Makololo country, and
still more by the removal of Mrs. Livingstone, and the thought of his
motherless children; the most heart-rending scenes had been witnessed
everywhere in regions that a short time ago had been so bright; all his
efforts to do good had been turned to evil, every new path he had opened
having been seized as it were by the devil and turned to the most
diabolical ends; his countrymen were nearly all away from him; the most
depressing of diseases had produced its natural effect; he had had
worries, delays, and disappointments about ships and boats of the most
harrassing kind; and now the "Lady Nyassa" could not be floated in the
waters of which he had fondly hoped to see her the angel and the queen.
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the noble quality of the heart that,
undeterred by all these troubles, resolved to take this last chance of
exploring the banks of Nyassa, although it could only be by the weary
process of trudge, trudge, trudging; although hunger, if not starvation,
blocked the path, and fever and dysentery flitted around it like imps of
darkness; although tribes, demoralized by the slave-trade, might at any
moment put an end to him and his enterprise;--not to speak of the
ordinary risks of travel, the difficulty of finding guides, the
liability to bodily hurt, the scarcity of food, the perils from wild
beasts by night Und by day,--risks which no ordinary traveler could
think of lightly, but which in Livingstone's journeys drop out of sight,
because they are so overtopped and dwarfed by risks that ordinary
travelers never know.
Why did not Livingstone go home? A single sentence in a letter to Mr.
Waller, while the recall was only in contemplation, explains: "In my
case, duty would not lead me home, and home therefore I would not go."
Away then goes Livingstone, accompanied by the steward of the "Pioneer"
and a handful of native servants (Mr. Young being left in charge of the
vessel), to get to the northern end of the lake, and ascertain whether
any large river flowed into it from the west, and if possible to visit
Lake Moero, of which he had heard, lying a considerable way to the west.
For the first time in his travels he carried some bottles of wine,--a
present from the missionaries Waller and Alington; for water had
hitherto been his only drink, with a little hot coffee in the mornings
to warm the stomach and ward off the feeling of sinking. At one time
the two white men are lost three days in the woods, without food or the
means of purchasing it; but some poor natives out of their poverty show
them kindness. At another they can procure no guides, though the country
is difficult and the way intersected by deep gullies that can only be
scaled at certain known parts; anon they are taken for slave-dealers,
and make a narrow escape of a night attack. Another time, the cries of
children remind Livingstone of his own home and family, where the very
same tones of sorrow had often been heard; the thought brought its own
pang, only he could feel thankful that in the case of his children the
woes of the slave-trade would never be added to the ordinary sorrows of
childhood. Then he would enjoy the joyous laugh of some Manganja women,
and think of the good influence of a merry heart, and remember that
whenever he had observed a chief with a joyous twinkle of the eye
accompanying his laugh, he had always set him down as a good fellow, and
had never been disappointed in him afterward. Then he would cheer his
monotony by making some researches into the origin of civilization,
coming to the clear conclusion that born savages must die out, because
they could devise no means of living through disease. By and by he would
examine the Arab character, and find Mahometanism as it now is in Africa
worse than African heathenism, and remark on the callousness of the
Mahometans to the welfare of one another, and on the especial glory of
Christianity, the only religion that seeks to propagate itself, and
through the influence of love share its blessings with others. Anon he
would dwell on the primitive African faith; its recognition of one
Almighty Creator, its moral code, so like our own, save in the one
article of polygamy; its pious recognition of a future life, though the
element of punishment is not very conspicuous; its mild character
generally, notwithstanding the bloodthirstiness sometimes ascribed to
it, which, however, Livingstone held to be, at Dahomey for example,
purely exceptional.
Another subject that occupied him was the natural history of the
country. He would account for desert tracts like Kalahari by the fact
that the east and southeast winds, laden with moisture from the Indian
Ocean, get cooled over the coast ranges of mountains, and having
discharged their vapor there had no spare moisture to deposit over the
regions that for want of it became deserts. The geology of Southern
Africa was peculiar; the geographical series described in books was not
to be found here, for, as Sir Roderick Murchison had shown, the great
submarine depressions and elevations that had so greatly affected the
other continents during the secondary, tertiary, and more recent
periods, had not affected Africa. It had preserved its terrestrial
conditions during a long period, unaffected by any changes save those
dependent on atmospheric influences. There was also a peculiarity in
prehistoric Africa--it had no stone period; at least no flint weapons
had been found, and the familiarity and skill of the natives with the
manufacture of iron seemed to indicate that they had used iron weapons
from the first.
The travelers had got as far as the river Loangwa (of Nyassa), when a
halt had to be called. Some of the natives had been ill, and indeed one
had died in the comparatively cold climate of the highlands. But nothing
would have hindered Livingstone from working his way round the head of
the lake if only time had been on his side. But time was inexorably
against him; the orders from Government were strict. He must get the
"Pioneer" down to the sea while the river was in flood. A month or six
weeks would have enabled him to finish his researches, but he could not
run the risk. It would have been otherwise had he foreseen that when he
got to the ship he would be detained two months waiting for the rising
of the river. On their way back, they took a nearer cut, but found the
villages all deserted. The reeds along the banks of the lake were
crowded with fugitives. "In passing mile after mile, marked with the
sad proofs that 'man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands
mourn,' one experiences an overpowering sense of helplessness to
alleviate human woe, and breathes a silent prayer to the Almighty to
hasten the good time coming when 'man to man, the world o'er, shall
brothers be for all that.'" Near a village called Bangwé they were
pursued by a body of Mazitu, who retired when they came within ear-shot.
This little adventure seemed to give rise to the report that Dr.
Livingstone had been murdered by the Makololo, which reached England,
and created no small alarm. Referring to the report in his jocular way,
in a letter to his friend Mr. Fitch, he says, "A report of my having
been murdered at the lake has been very industriously circulated by the
Portuguese. Don't become so pale on getting a letter from a dead man."
Reaching the stockade of Chinsamba in Mosapo, they were much pleased
with that chief's kindness. Dr. Livingstone followed his usual method,
and gained his usual influence. "When a chief has made any inquiries of
us, we have found that we gave most satisfaction in our answers when we
tried to fancy ourselves in the position of the interrogator, and him
that of a poor uneducated fellow-countryman in England. The polite,
respectful way of speaking, and behavior of what we call 'a thorough
gentleman,' almost always secures the friendship and good-will of the
Africans."
On 1st November, 1863, the party reached the ship, and found all well.
Here, as has been said, two months had to be spent waiting for the
flood, to Dr. Livingstone's intense chagrin.
While waiting here he received a letter from Bishop Tozer, the successor
of Bishop Mackenzie, informing him that he had resolved to abandon the
Mission on the continent and transfer operations to Zanzibar. Dr.
Livingstone had very sincerely welcomed the new Bishop, and at first
liked him, and thought that his caution would lead to good results.
Indeed, when he saw that his own scheme was destroyed by the Portuguese,
he had great hopes that what he had been defeated in, the Mission would
accomplish. Some time before, his hopes had begun to wane, and now the
news conveyed in Bishop Tozer's letter was their death-blow. In his
reply he implored the Bishop to reconsider the matter. After urging
strongly some considerations bearing on the duty of missionaries, the
reputation of Englishmen, and the impression likely to be made on the
native mind, he concluded thus: "I hope, dear Bishop, you will not deem
me guilty of impertinence in thus writing to you with a sore heart. I
see that if you go, the last ray of hope for this wretched, trodden-down
people disappears, and I again from the bottom of my heart entreat you
to reconsider the matter, and may the All-wise One guide to that
decision which will be most for his glory."
And thus, for Livingstone's life-time, ended the Universities Mission to
Central Africa, with all the hopes which its bright dawn had inspired,
that the great Church of England would bend its strength against the
curse of Africa, and sweep it from the face of the earth. Writing to Sir
Thomas Maclear, he said that he felt this much more than his own recall.
He could hardly write of it; he was more inclined "to sit down and cry."
No mission had ever had such bright prospects; notwithstanding all that
had been said against it, he stood by the climate as firmly as ever, and
if he were only young, he would go himself and plant the gospel there.
It would be done one day without fail, though he might not live to
see it.
As usual, Livingstone found himself blamed for the removal of the
Mission. The Makololo had behaved badly, and they were Livingstone's
people. "Isn't it interesting," he writes to Mr. Moore, "to get blamed
for everything? But I must be thankful in feeling that I would rather
perish than blame another for my misdeeds and deficiencies."
We have lost sight of Dr. Stewart and the projected mission of the Free
Church of Scotland. As Dr. Livingstone's arrangements did not admit of
his accompanying Dr. Stewart up the Shiré, he set out alone, falling in
afterward with the Rev. Mr. Scudamore, a member, and as we have already
said ultimately a martyr, of the Universities Mission. The report which
Dr. Stewart made of the prospects of a mission was that, owing to the
disturbed state of the country, no immediate action could be taken.
Livingstone seemed to think him hasty in this conclusion. The scheme
continued to be ardently cherished, and some ten or twelve years
after--in 1874--in the formation of the "Livingstonia" mission and
colony, a most promising and practical step was taken toward the
fulfillment of Dr. Livingstone's views. Dr. Stewart has proved one of
the best friends and noblest workers for African regeneration both at
Lovedale and Livingstonia--a strong man on whom other men may lean, with
his whole heart in the cause of Africa.
In the breaking up of the Universities Mission, it was necessary that
some arrangement should be made on behalf of about thirty boys and a few
helpless old persons and others, a portion of the rescued slaves, who
had been taken under the charge of the Mission, and could not be
abandoned. The fear of the Portuguese seemed likely to lead to their
being left behind. But Livingstone could not bear the idea. He thought
it would be highly discreditable to the good name of England, and an
affront to the memory of Bishop Mackenzie, to "repudiate" his act in
taking them under his protection. Therefore, when Bishop Tozer would not
accept the charge, he himself took them in hand, giving orders to Mr.
E.D. Young (as he says in his Journal), "in the event of any Portuguese
interfering with them in his absence, to pitch him over-board!" Through
his influence arrangements were made, as we shall see, for conveying
them to the Cape. Mr. R.M. Ballantyne, in his _Six Months at the Cape_,
tells us that he found, some years afterward, among the most efficient
teachers in St. George's Orphanage, Cape Town, one of these black girls,
named Dauma, whom Bishop Mackenzie had personally rescued and carried on
his shoulders, and whom Livingstone now rescued a second time.
Livingstone's plan for himself was to sail to Bombay in the "Lady
Nyassa," and endeavor to sell her there, before returning home. The
Portuguese would have liked to get her, to employ her as a
slaver--"But," he wrote to his daughter (10th August, 1863), "I would
rather see her go down to the depths of the Indian Ocean than that. We
have not been able to do all that we intended for this country, owing to
the jealousy and slave-hunting of the Portuguese. They have hindered us
effectually by sweeping away the population into slavery. Thousands have
perished, and wherever we go human skeletons appear. I suppose that our
Government could not prevail on the Portuguese to put a stop to this; so
we are recalled. I am only sorry that we ever began near these slavers,
but the great men of Portugal professed so loudly their eager desire to
help us (and in the case of the late King I think there was sincerity),
that I believed them, and now find out that it was all for show in
Europe.... If missions were established as we hoped, I should still hope
for good being done to this land, but the new Bishop had to pay
fourpence for every pound weight of calico he bought, and calico is as
much currency here as money is in Glasgow. It looks as if they wished to
prohibit any one else coming, and, unfortunately, Bishop Tozer, a good
man enough, lacks courage.... What a mission it would be if there were
no difficulties--nothing but walking about in slippers made by admiring
young ladies! Hey! that would not suit me. It would give me the
doldrums; but there are many tastes in the world."
Looking back on the work of the last six years, while deeply grieved
that the great object of the Expedition had not been achieved, Dr.
Livingstone was able to point to some important results:
1. The discovery of the Kongone harbor, and the ascertaining of the
condition of the Zambesi River, and its fitness for navigation.
2. The ascertaining of the capacity of the soil. It was found to be
admirably adapted for indigo and cotton, as well as tobacco, castor-oil,
and sugar. Its great fertility was shown by its gigantic grasses, and
abundant crops of corn and maize. The highlands were free from tsetse
and mosquitoes. The drawback to all this was the occurrence of
periodical droughts, once every few years.
But every fine feature of the country was bathed in gloom by the
slave-trade. The image left in Dr. Livingstone's mind was not that of
the rich, sunny, luxuriant country, but that of the woe and wretchedness
of the people. The real service of the Expedition was, that it had
exposed slavery at its fountain-head, and in all its phases. First,
there was the internal slave-trade between hostile native tribes. Then,
there were the slave-traders from the coast, Arabs, or half-caste
Portuguese, for whom natives were encouraged to collect slaves by all
the horrible means of marauding and murder. And further, there were the
parties sent out from Portuguese and Arab coast towns, with cloth and
beads, muskets and ammunition. The destructive and murderous effects of
the last were the climax of the system.
Dr. Livingstone had seen nothing to make him regard the African as of a
different species from the rest of the human family. Nor was he the
lowest of the species. He had a strong frame and a wonderfully
persistent vitality, was free from many European diseases, and could
withstand privations with wonderful light-heartedness.
He did not deem it necessary formally to answer a question sometimes
put, whether the African had enough of intellect to receive
Christianity. The reception of Christianity did not depend on intellect.
It depended, as Sir James Stephen had remarked, on a spiritual
intuition, which was not the fruit of intellectual culture. But, in
fact, the success of missions on the West Coast showed that not only
could the African be converted to Christianity, but that Christianity
might take root and be cordially supported by the African race.
It was the accursed slave-trade, promoted by the Portuguese, that had
frustrated everything. For some time to come his efforts and his prayers
must be directed to getting influential men to see to this, so that one
way or other the trade might be abolished forever. The hope of obtaining
access to the heart of Africa by another route than that through the
Portuguese settlements was still in Livingstone's heart. He would go
home, but only for a few months; at the earliest possible moment he
would return to look for a new route to the interior.
CHAPTER XVI.
QUILIMANE TO BOMBAY AND ENGLAND.
A.D. 1864.
Livingstone returns the "Pioneer" to the Navy, and is to sail in the
"Nyassa" to Bombay--Terrific circular storm--Imminent peril of the
"Nyassa"--He reaches Mozambique--Letter to his daughter--Proceeds to
Zanzibar--His engineer leaves him--Scanty crew of "Nyassa"--Livingstone
captain and engineer--Peril of the voyage of 2500 miles--Risk of the
monsoons--The "Nyassa" becalmed--Illness of the men--Remarks on African
travel--Flying-fish--Dolphins--Curiosities of his Journal--Idea of a
colony--Furious squall--Two sea-serpents seen--More squalls--The
"Nyassa" enters Bombay harbor--Is unnoticed--First visit from officers
with Custom-house schedules--How filled up--Attention of Sir Bartle
Frere and others--Livingstone goes with the Governor to Dapuri--His
feelings on landing in India--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--He visits
mission-schools, etc., at Poonah--Slaving in Persian Gulf--Returns to
Bombay--Leaves two boys with Dr. Wilson--Borrows passage-money and sails
for England--At Aden--At Alexandria--Reaches Charing
Cross--Encouragement derived from his Bombay visit--Two projects
contemplated on his way home.
On reaching the mouth of the Zambesi, Dr. Livingstone was fortunate in
falling in, on the 13th February, with H.M.S. "Orestes," which was
joined on the 14th by the "Ariel." The "Orestes" took the "Pioneer" in
tow, and the "Ariel" the "Lady Nyassa," and brought them to Mozambique.
The day after they set out, a circular storm passed over them, raging
with the utmost fury, and creating the greatest danger. Often as Dr.
Livingstone had been near the gates of death, he was never nearer than
now. He had been offered a passage on board the "Ariel," but while there
was danger he would not leave the "Lady Nyassa." Had the latter not been
an excellent sea-ship she could not have survived the tempest; all the
greater was Dr. Livingstone's grief that she had never reached the lake
for which she was adapted so well.
Writing to his daughter Agnes from Mozambique, he gives a very graphic
account of the storm, after telling her the manner of their leaving
the Zambesi:
"_Mozambique_, 24_th Feb._, 1864.--When our patience had been
well nigh exhausted the river rose and we steamed gladly down
the Shiré on the 19th of last month. An accident detained us
some time, but on the 1st February we were close by
Morumbala, where the Bishop [Tozer] passed a short time
before bolting out of the country. I took two members of the
Mission away in the 'Pioneer,' and thirteen women and
children, whom having liberated we did not like to leave to
become the certain prey of slavers again. The Bishop left
twenty-five boys, too, and these also I took with me, hoping
to get them conveyed to the Cape, where I trust they may
become acquainted with our holy religion. We had thus quite a
swarm on board, all very glad to get away from a land of
slaves. There were many more liberated, but we took only the
helpless and those very anxious to be free and with English
people. Those who could cultivate the soil we encouraged to
do so, and left up the river. Only one boy was unwilling to
go, and he was taken by the Bishop. It is a great pity that
the Bishop withdrew the Mission, for he had a noble chance of
doing great things. The captives would have formed a fine
school, and as they had no parents he could have educated
them as he liked.
"When we reached the sea-coast at Luabo we met a man-of-war,
H.M.S. 'Orestes.' I went to her with 'Pioneer,' and sent
'Lady Nyassa' round by inland canal to Kongone. Next day I
went into Kongone in 'Pioneer'; took our things out of her,
and handed her over to the officers of the 'Orestes.' Then
H.M.S 'Ariel' came and took 'Nyassa' in tow, 'Orestes' having
'Pioneer.' Captain Chapman of 'Ariel' very kindly invited me
on board to save me from the knocking about of the 'Lady
Nyassa,' but I did not like to leave so long as there was any
danger, and accepted his invitation for Mr. Waller, who was
dreadfully sea-sick. On 15th we were caught by a hurricane
which whirled the 'Ariel' right round. Her sails, quickly put
to rights, were again backed so that the ship was driven
backward and a hawser wound itself round her screw, so as to
stop the engines. By this time she was turned so as to be
looking right across 'Lady Nyassa,' and the wind alone
propelling her as if to go over the little vessel. I saw no
hope of escape except by catching a rope's-end of the big
ship as she passed over us, but by God's goodness she glided
past, and we felt free to breathe. That night it blew a
furious gale. The captain offered to lower a boat if I would
come to the 'Ariel,' but it would have endangered all in the
boat: the waves dashed so hard against the sides of the
vessel, it might have been swamped, and my going away would
have taken heart out of those that remained. We then passed a
terrible night, but the 'Lady Nyassa' did wonderfully well,
rising like a little duck over the foaming billows. She took
in spray alone, and no green water. The man-of-war's people
expected that she would go down, and it was wonderful to see
how well she did when the big man-of-war, only about 200 feet
off, plunged so as to show a large portion of copper oh her
bottom, then down behind so as to have the sea level with the
top of her bulwarks. A boat hung at that level was smashed.
If we had gone down we could not have been helped in the
least--pitch dark, and wind whistling above; the black folks,
'ane bocking here, another there,' and wanting us to go to
the 'bank.' On 18th the weather moderated, and, the captain
repeating his very kind offer, I went on board with a good
conscience, and even then the boat got damaged. I was hoisted
up in it, and got rested in what was quite a steady ship as
compared with the 'Lady Nyassa.' The 'Ariel' was three days
cutting off the hawser, though nine feet under water, the men
diving and cutting it with immensely long chisels. On the
19th we spoke to a Liverpool ship, requesting the captain to
report me alive, a silly report having been circulated by the
Portuguese that I had been killed at Lake Nyassa, and on the
24th we entered Mozambique harbor, very thankful for our kind
and merciful preservation. The 'Orestes' has not arrived with
the 'Pioneer,' though she is a much more powerful vessel than
the 'Ariel.' Here we have a fort, built in 1500, and said to
be of stones brought from Lisbon. It is a square
massive-looking structure. The town adjacent is Arab in
appearance. The houses flat-roofed and colored white, pink,
and yellow; streets narrow, with plenty of slaves on them. It
is on an island, the mainland on the north being about a mile
off."
The "Pioneer" was delivered over to the Navy, being Her Majesty's
property, and proceeded to the Cape with the "Valorous," Mr. Waller
being on board with a portion of the mission flock. Of Mr. Waller
(subsequently editor of the _Last Journals_) Dr. Livingstone remarked
that "he continued his generous services to all connected with the
Mission, whether white or black, till they were no longer needed; his
conduct to them throughout was truly noble, and worthy of the
highest praise."
After remaining some weeks at Mozambique for thorough repairs, the
"Lady Nyassa" left on 16th April for Johanna and Zanzibar. She was
unable to touch at the former place, and reached Zanzibar on the 24th.
Offers were made for her there, which might have led to her being sold,
but her owner did not think them sufficient, and in point of fact, he
could not make up his mind to part with her. He clung to the hope that
she might yet be useful, and to sell her seemed equivalent to abandon
all hope of carrying out his philanthropic schemes. At all events, till
he should consult Mr. Young he would not sell her at such a sacrifice.
At Zanzibar he found that a naval gentleman, who had been lately there,
had not spoken of him in the most complimentary terms. But it had not
hurt him with his best friends. "Indeed, I find that evil-speaking
against me has, by the good providence of my God, turned rather to my
benefit. I got two of my best friends by being spoken ill of, for they
found me so different from what they had been led to expect that they
befriended me more than they otherwise would have done. It is the good
hand of Him who has all in his power that influences other hearts to
show me kindness."
The only available plan now was to cross the Indian Ocean for Bombay, or
possibly Aden, in the "Nyassa" and leave the ship there till he should
make a run home, consult with his friends as to the future, and find
means for the prosecution of his work. At Zanzibar a new difficulty
arose. Mr. Rae, the engineer, who had now been with him for many years,
and with whom, despite his peculiarities, he got on very well, signified
his intention of leaving him. He had the offer of a good situation, and
wished to accept of it. He was not without compunctions at leaving his
friend in the lurch, and told Livingstone that if he had had no offer
for the ship he would have gone with him, but as he had declined the
offer made to him, he did not feel under obligation to do so.
Livingstone was too generous to press him to remain. It was impossible
to supply Mr. Rae's place, and if anything should go wrong with the
engines, what was to be done? The entire crew of the vessel consisted of
four Europeans; namely, Dr. Livingstone--"skipper," one stoker, one
carpenter, and one sailor; seven native Zambesians, who, till they
volunteered, had never seen the sea, and two boys, one of whom was
Chuma, afterward his attendant on the last journey. With this somewhat
sorry complement, and fourteen tons of coal, Dr. Livingstone set out on
30th April, on a voyage of 2500 miles, over an ocean which he had
never crossed.
It was a very perilous enterprise, for he was informed that the breaking
of the monsoon occurred at the end of May or the beginning of June.
This, as he came to think, was too early; but in any case, he would come
very near the dangerous time. As he wrote to one of his friends, he felt
jammed into a corner, and what could he do? He believed from the best
information he could get that he would reach Bombay in eighteen days.
Had any one told him that he would be forty-five days at sea, and that
for twenty-five of these his ship would be becalmed, and even when she
had a favorable wind would not sail fast, even he would have looked pale
at the thought of what was before him. The voyage was certainly a
memorable one, and has only escaped fame by the still greater wonders
performed by Livingstone on land.
On the first day of the voyage, he made considerable way, but Collyer,
one of his white men, was prostrated by a bilious attack. However, one
of the black men speedily learned to steer, and took Dr. Livingstone's
place at the wheel. Hardly was Collyer better when Pennell, another of
his men, was seized. The chief foes of the ship were currents and calms.
Owing to the illness of the men they could not steam, and the sails were
almost useless. Even steam, when they got it up, enabled them only to
creep. On 20th May, Livingstone, after recording but sixteen knots in
the last twenty-four hours, says in his Journal: "This very unusual
weather has a very depressing influence on my mind. I often feel as if I
am to die on this voyage, and wish I had sent the accounts to the
Government, as also my chart to the Zambesi. I often wish that I may be
permitted to do something for the benighted of Africa. I shall have
nothing to do at home; by the failure of the Universities Mission my
work seems vain. No fruit likely to come from J. Moffat's mission
either. Have I not labored in vain? Am I to be cut off before I do
anything to effect permanent improvement in Africa? I have been
unprofitable enough, but may do something yet, in giving information. If
spared, God grant that I may be more faithful than I have been, and may
He open up the way for me!"
Next day the weather was as still as ever; the sea a glassy calm, with a
hot glaring sun, and sharks stalking about. "All ill-natured," says
honest Livingstone, "and in this I am sorry to feel compelled to join."
There is no sign of ill-nature, however, in the following remarks on
African travel, in his Journal for 23d May:
"In traveling in Africa, with the specific object in view of
ameliorating the benighted condition of the country, every
act is ennobled. In obtaining shelter for the night, and
exchanging the customary civilities, purchasing food for
one's party and asking the news of the country, and answering
in their own polite way any inquiries made respecting the
object of the journey, we begin to spread information
respecting that people by whose agency their land will yet be
made free from the evils that now oppress it. The mere animal
pleasure of traveling is very great. The elastic muscles have
been exercised. Fresh and healthy blood circulates in the
veins, the eye is clear, the step firm, but the day's
exertion has been enough to make rest thoroughly enjoyable.
There is always the influence of the remote chances of danger
on the mind, either from men or wild beasts, and there is the
fellow-feeling drawn out to one's humble, hardy companions,
with whom a community of interests and perils renders one
friends indeed. The effect of travel on my mind has been to
make it more self-reliant, confident of resources and
presence of mind. On the body the limbs become wall-knit, the
muscles after six months' tramping are as hard as a board,
the countenance bronzed as was Adam's, and no dyspepsia.
"In remaining at any spot, it is to work. The sweat of the
brow is no longer a curse when one works for God; it is
converted into a blessing. It is a tonic to the system. The
charms of repose cannot be known without the excitement of
exertion. Most travelers seem taken up with the difficulties
of the way, the pleasures of roaming free in the most
picturesque localities seem forgotten."
Toward the end of May a breeze at last springs up; many
flying-fish come on board, and Livingstone is as usual intent
on observation. He observes them fly with great ease a
hundred yards, the dolphin pursuing them swiftly, but not so
swiftly as they can fly. He notices that the dolphin's bright
colors afford a warning to his enemies, and give them a
chance of escape. Incessant activity is a law in obtaining
food. If the prey could be caught with ease, and no warning
were given, the balance would be turned against the feebler
animals, and carnivora alone would prevail. The cat shows her
shortened tail, and the rattlesnake shakes his tail, to give
warning to the prey. The flying-fish has large eyes in
proportion to other fish, yet leaps on board very often at
night, and kills himself by the concussion.
Livingstone is in great perplexity what to do. At the rate at
which his ship is going it would take him fifteen days to
reach Bombay, being one day before the breaking of the
monsoon, which would be running it too close to danger. He
thinks of going to Aden, but that would require him to go
first to Maculla for water and provisions. When he tries Aden
the wind is against him; so he turns the ship's head to
Bombay, though he has water enough for but ten or twelve days
on short allowance. "May the Almighty be gracious to us all
and help us!"
His Journal is a curious combination of nautical observations
and reflections on Africa and his work. We seem to hear him
pacing his little deck, and thinking aloud:
"The idea of a colony in Africa, as the term colony is
usually understood cannot be entertained. English races
cannot compete in manual labor of any kind with the natives,
but they can take a leading part in managing the land,
improving the quality, in creating the quantity and extending
the varieties of the productions of the soil; and by taking a
lead, too, in trade, and in all public matters, the
Englishman would be an unmixed advantage to every one below
and around him, for he would fill a place which is now
practically vacant.
"It is difficult to convey an idea of the country; it is so
different from all preconceived notions. The country in many
parts rises up to plateaus, slopes up to which are
diversified by valleys lined with trees; or here and there
rocky bluffs jut out; the plateaus themselves are open
prairies covered with grass dotted over with trees, and
watered by numerous streams. Nor are they absolutely flat,
their surface is varied by picturesque undulations. Deep
gorges and ravines leading down to the lower levels offer
special beauties, and landscapes from the edges of the higher
plateaus are in their way unequaled. Thence the winding of
the Shiré may be followed like a silver thread or broad lake
with its dark mountain mass behind.
"I think that the Oxford and Cambridge missionaries have
treated me badly in trying to make me the scapegoat of their
own blunders and inefficiency.... But I shall try equitably
and gently to make allowances for human weakness, though that
weakness has caused me much suffering."
On 28th May they had something like a foretaste of the breaking of the
monsoon, though happily that event did not yet take place. "At noon a
dense cloud came down on us from E. and N.E., and blew a furious gale;
tore sails; the ship, as is her wont, rolled broadside into it, and
nearly rolled quite over. Everything was hurled hither and thither. It
lasted half an hour, then passed with a little rain. It was terrible
while it lasted. We had calm after it, and sky brightened up. Thank God
for his goodness."
In June there was more wind, but a peculiarity in the construction of
the ship impeded her progress through the water. It was still very
tedious and trying. Livingstone seems to have been reading books that
would take his attention off the very trying weather.
"Lord Ravensworth has been trying for twenty years to reader the lines
in Horace--
'Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo
Dulce loquentem.'
And after every conceivable variety of form this is the best:
'The softly speaking Lalage,
The softly smiling still for me.'
Pity he had nothing better to engage his powers, for instance the
translating of the Bible into one of the languages of the world."
The 10th of June was introduced by a furious squall which tore the fore
square-sail to ribbons. A curious sight is seen at sea: "two
serpents--said to be often seen on the coast. One dark olive, with light
yellow rings round it, and flattened tail; the other lighter in color.
They seem to be salt-water animals."
Next day, a wet scowling morning. Frequent rains, and thunder in the
distance. "A poor weak creature. Permit me to lean on an
all-powerful arm."
"The squalls usually come up right against the wind, and cast all our
sails aback. This makes them so dangerous, active men are required to
trim them to the other side. We sighted land a little before 12, the
high land of Rutnagerry. I thought of going in, but finding that we have
twenty-eight hours' steam, I changed my mind, and pushed on for Bombay,
115 miles distant. We are nearer the land down here than we like, but
our N.W. wind has prevented us from making northing. We hope for a
little change, and possibly may get in nicely. The good Lord of all
help us!
"At 3 P.M. wind and sea high; very hazy. Raining, with a strong head
wind; at 8 P.M. a heavy squall came off the land on our east. Wind
whistled through the rigging loudly, and we made but little progress
steaming. At 11 P.M. a nice breeze sprang up from east and helped us.
About 12 a white patch reported seemed a shoal, but none is marked on
the chart. Steered a point more out from land; another white patch
marked in middle watch. Sea and wind lower at 3 A.M. At daylight we
found ourselves abreast high land at least 500 feet above sea-level.
Wind light, and from east, which enables us to use fore and aft
try-sails. A groundswell on, but we are getting along, and feel very
thankful to Him who has favored us. Hills not so beautifully colored as
those in Africa....
"At 7 P.M. a furious squall came off the land; could scarcely keep the
bonnets on our heads. Pitchy dark, except the white curl on the waves,
which was phosphorescent. Seeing that we could not enter the harbor,
though we had been near, I stopped the steaming and got up the
try-sails, and let Pennell, who has been up thirty hours, get a sleep.
"13_th June_, 1864.--We found that we had come north only about ten
miles. We had calms after the squall, and this morning the sea is as
smooth as glass, and a thick haze over the land. A scum as of dust on
face of water. We are, as near as I can guess by the chart, about
twenty-five miles from the port of Bombay. Came to Choul Rock at
mid-day, and, latitude agreeing thereto, pushed on N. by W. till we came
to light-ship. It was so hazy inland we could see nothing whatever, then
took the direction by chart, and steered right into Bombay most
thankfully. I mention God's good providence over me, and beg that He may
accept my spared life for his service."
Between the fog and the small size of the Nyassa, her entrance into the
harbor was not observed. Among Livingstone's first acts on anchoring was
to give handsome gratuities to those who had shared his danger and
helped him in his straits. Going ashore, he called on the Governor and
the police magistrate, but the one was absent and the other busy, and so
he returned to the ship unrecognized. The schedules of the custom-house
sent to be filled up his first recognition by the authorities of
Bombay. He replied that except a few bales of calico and a box of beads
he had no merchandise; he was consigned to no one; the seamen had only
their clothes, and he did not know a single soul in Bombay. As soon as
his arrival was known every attention was showered on him by Sir Bartle
Frere, the Governor, and others. They had been looking out for him, but
he had eluded their notice. The Governor was residing at Dapuri, and on
his invitation Livingstone went there. Stopping at Poona, he called on
the missionaries, and riding on an elephant he saw some of the "lions"
of the place. Colonel Stewart, who accompanied him, threw some light on
the sea-serpent. "He told us that the yellow sea-serpent which we had
seen before reaching Bombay is poisonous; there are two kinds--one dark
olive, the other pale lemon color; both have rings of brighter yellow on
their tails."
Landing in India was a strange experience, as he tells Sir Thomas
Maclear. "To walk among the teeming thousands of all classes of
population, and see so many things that reading and pictures had made
familiar to the mind, was very interesting. The herds of the buffaloes,
kept I believe for their milk, invariably made the question glance
across the mind, 'Where's your rifle?' Nor could I look at the elephants
either without something of the same feeling. Hundreds of bales of
cotton were lying on the wharves.".
"20_th June_, 1864--Went with Captain Leith to Poona to visit the Free
Church Mission Schools there, under the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, Gardner, etc.
A very fine school of 500 boys and young men answered questions very
well.... All collected together, and a few ladies and gentlemen for whom
I answered questions about Africa. We then went to a girls' school; the
girls sang very nicely, then acted a little play. There were different
castes in all the schools, and quite mixed. After this we went to
College, where young men are preparing for degrees of the University
under Dr. Haug and Mr. Wordsworth; then to the Roman Catholic Orphanage,
where 200 girls are assembled, clothed, and fed under a French Lady
Superior--dormitory clean and well aired, but many had
scrofulous-looking sore eyes; then home to see some friends whom Lady
Frere had invited, to save me the trouble of calling on them. Saw Mr.
Cowan's daughter."
"21_st June_, 1864.--... Had a conversation with the Governor after
breakfast about the slaving going on toward the Persian Gulf. His idea
is that they are now only beginning to put a stop to slavery--they did
not know of it previously.... The merchants of Bombay have got the whole
of the trade of East Africa thrown on their hands, and would, it is
thought, engage in an effort to establish commerce on the coast. The
present Sultan is, for an Arab, likely to do a good deal. He asked if I
would undertake to be consul at a settlement, but I think I have not
experience enough for a position of that kind among Europeans."
On returning to Bombay, he saw the missionary institutions of the Scotch
Established and Free Churches, and arranged with Dr. Wilson of the
latter mission to take his two boys, Chuma and Wikatani. He arranged
also that the "Lady Nyassa," which he had not yet sold, should be taken
care of, and borrowing £133, 10s. for the passage-money of himself and
John Reid, one of his men, embarked for old England.
At Aden considerable rain had fallen lately; he observed that there was
much more vegetation than when he was there before, and it occurred to
him that at the time of the Exodus the same effects probably followed
the storms of rain, lightning, and hail in Egypt. Egypt was very far
from green, so that Dr. Stanley must have visited it at another part of
the year. At Alexandria, when he went on board the "Ripon," he found the
Maharaja Dhuleep Singh and his young Princess--the girl he had fancied
and married from an English Egyptian school. Paris is reached on the
21st July; a day is spent in resting; and on the evening of the 23d he
reaches Charing Cross, and is regaled with what, after nearly eight
years' absence, must have been true music--the roar of the
mighty Babylon.
The desponding views of his work which we find in such entries in his
Journal as that of 20th May must not be held to express his deliberate
mind. It must not be thought that he had thrown aside the motto which
had helped him as much as it had helped his royal countryman, Robert
Bruce--"Try again." He had still some arrows in his quiver. And his
short visit to Bombay was a source of considerable encouragement. The
merchants there, who had the East African trade in their hands,
encouraged him to hope that a settlement for honest traffic might be
established to the north of the region over which the Portuguese claimed
authority. As Livingstone moved homeward he was revolving two projects.
The first was to expose the atrocious slave-trading of the Portuguese,
which had not only made all his labor fruitless, but had used his very
discoveries as channels for spreading fresh misery over Africa. The
thought warmed his blood, and he felt like a Highlander with his hand on
his claymore. The second project was to find means for a new settlement
at the head of the Rovuma, or somewhere else beyond the Portuguese
lines, which he would return in the end of the year to establish.
Writing a short book might help to accomplish both these projects. As
yet, the idea of finding the sources of the Nile was not in his mind. It
was at the earnest request of others that he undertook the work that
cost him so many years of suffering, and at last his life.
CHAPTER XVII.
SECOND VISIT HOME.
A.D. 1864-65.
Dr. Livingstone and Sir R. Murchison--At Lady Palmerston's reception--at
other places in London--Sad news of his son Robert--His early death--Dr.
Livingstone goes to Scotland--Pays visits--Consultation with Professor
Syme as to operation--Visit to Duke of Argyll--to Ulva--He meets Dr.
Duff--At launch of a Turkish frigate--At Hamilton--Goes to Bath to
British Association--Delivers an Address--Dr. Colenso--At funeral of
Captain Speke--Bath speech offends the Portuguese--Charges of
Lacerda--He visits Mr. and Mrs. Webb-at Newstead--Their great
hospitality--The Livingstone room--He spends eight months there writing
his book--He regains elasticity and playfulness--His book--Charles
Livingstone's share--He uses his influence for Dr. Kirk--Delivers a
lecture At Mansfield--Proposal made to him by Sir R. Murchison to return
to Africa--Letter from Sir Roderick--His reply--He will not cease to be
a missionary--Letter to Mr. James Young--Overtures from Foreign
Office--Livingstone displeased--At dinner of Royal Academy--His speech
not reported--President Lincoln's assassination--Examination by
Committee of House of Commons--His opinion on the capacity of the
negro--He goes down to Scotland--_Tom Brown's School Days_--His mother
very ill--She rallies--He goes to Oxford--Hears of his mother's
death--Returns--He attends examination of Oswell's school--His
speech--Goes to London, preparing to leave--Parts from Mr. and Mrs.
Webb--Stays with Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton--Last days in England.
On reaching London, Dr. Livingstone took tip his quarters at the
Tavistock Hotel; but he had hardly swallowed dinner, when he was off to
call on Sir Roderick and Lady Murchison.
"Sir Roderick took me off with him, just as I was, to Lady Palmerston's
reception. My lady very gracious--gave me tea herself. Lord Palmerston
looking well. Had two conversations with him about slave-trade. Sir
Roderick says that he is more intent on maintaining his policy on that
than on any other thing. And so is she--wonderfully fine, matronly lady.
Her daughters are grown up. Lady Shaftesbury like her mother in beauty
and grace. Saw and spoke to Sir Charles Wood about India, 'his Eastern
Empire,' as he laughingly called it. Spoke to Duke and Duchess of
Somerset. All say very polite things, and all wonderfully considerate."
An invitation to dine with Lord Palmerston on the 29th detained him for
a few days from going down to Scotland.
"_Monday,_ 25_th July_.--Went to Foreign Office.... Got a dress suit at
Nicol & Co.'s, and dined with Lord and Lady Dunmore. Very clever and
intelligent man, and lady very sprightly. Thence to Duchess of
Wellington's reception. A grand company--magnificent rooms. Met Lord and
Lady Colchester, Mrs. F. Peel, Lady Emily Peel, Lady de Redcliffe, Lord
Broughton, Lord Houghton, and many more whose names escaped me. Ladies
wonderfully beautiful--rich and rare were the gems they wore.
"26_th July.--Go_ to Wimbledon with Mr. Murray, and see Sir Bartle
Frere's children.... See Lord Russell--his manner is very cold, as all
the Russells are. Saw Mr. Layard too; he is warm and frank. Received an
invitation from the Lord Mayor to dine with Her Majesty's Ministers.
"27_th July_.--Hear the sad news that Robert is In the American army....
Went to Lord Mayor Lawrence's to dinner...."
With reference to the "sad news" of Robert, which made his father very
heavy-hearted during the first part of his visit home, it is right to
state a few particulars, as the painful subject found its way into
print, and was not always recorded accurately. Robert had some promising
qualities, and those who knew and understood him had good hopes of his
turning out well. But he was extremely restless, as if, to use
Livingstone's phrase, he had got "a deal of the vagabond nature from
his father;" and school-life was very irksome to him. With the view of
joining his father, he was sent to Natal, but he found no opportunity of
getting thence to the Zambesi. Leaving Natal, he found his way to
America, and at Boston he enlisted in the Federal army. The service was
as hot as could be. In one battle, two men were killed close to him by
shrapnel shell, a rifle bullet passed close to his head, and killed a
man behind him; other two were wounded close by him. His letters to his
sister expressed his regret at the course of his life, and confessed
that his troubles were due to his disobedience. So far was he from
desiring to trade on his father's name, that in enlisting he assumed
another, nor did any one in the army know whose son it was that was
fighting for the freedom of the slave. Meeting the risks of battle with
dauntless courage, he purposely abstained, even in the heat of a charge,
from destroying life. Not long after, Dr. Livingstone learned that in
one of his battles he was wounded and taken prisoner; then came a letter
from a hospital, in which he again expressed his intense desire to
travel. But his career had come to its close. He died in his nineteenth
year. His body lies in the great national cemetery of Gettysburg, in
Pennsylvania, in opening which Lincoln uttered one of those speeches
that made his name dear to Livingstone. Whatever degree of comfort or
hope his father might derive from Robert's last letters, he felt
saddened by his unsatisfactory career. Writing to his friend Moore (5th
August) he says: "I hope your eldest son will do well in the distant
land to which he has gone. My son is in the Federal army in America, and
no comfort. The secret ballast is often applied by a kind hand above,
when to outsiders we appear to be sailing gloriously with the wind."
"29_th July_.--Called on Mr. Gladstone; he was very
affable--spoke about the Mission, and asked if I had told
Lord Russell about it.... Visited Lady Franklin and Miss
Cracroft, her niece.... Dined with Lord and Lady Palmerston,
Lady Shaftesbury, and Lady Victoria Ashley, the Portuguese
Minister, Count d'Azeglio (Sardinian Minister), Mr.
Calcraft--a very agreeable party. Mr. Calcraft and I walked
home after retiring. He is cousin to Colonel Steele; the
colonel has gone abroad with his daughter, who is delicate."
"_Saturday, 31st July_, 1864.--Came down by the morning train
to Harburn, and met my old friend Mr. Young, who took me to
Limefield, and introduced me to a nice family."
Dr. Livingstone's relation to Mr. Young's family was very close and
cordial. Hardly one of the many notes and letters he wrote to his friend
fails to send greetings to "Ma-James," as he liked to call Mrs. Young,
after the African fashion. It is not only the playful ease of his
letters that shows how much he felt at home with Mr. Young,--the same
thing appears from the frequency with which he sought his counsel in
matters of business, and the value which he set upon it.
"_Sunday, 1st August_.--Went-to the U.P. church, and heard
excellent sermons. Was colder this time than on my former
visit to Scotland.
"_2d August_.--Reached Hamilton. Mother did not know me at
first. Anna Mary, a nice sprightly child, told me that she
preferred Garibaldi buttons on her dress, as I walked down to
Dr. Loudon to thank him for his kindness to my mother.
"_3d August_.--Agnes, Oswell, and Thomas came. I did not
recognize Tom, he has grown so much. Has been poorly a long
while; congestion of the kidney, it is said. Agnes quite
tall, and Anna Mary a nice little girl."
The next few days were spent with his family, and in visits to the
neighborhood. He had a consultation with Professor Syme as to a surgical
operation recommended for an ailment that had troubled him ever since
his first great journey; he was strongly urged to have the operation
performed, and probably it would have been better if he had; but he
finally declined, partly because an old medical friend was against it,
but chiefly, as he told Sir* Roderick, because the matter would get into
the newspapers, and he did not like the public to be speaking of his
infirmities. On the 17th he went to Inveraray to visit the Duke of
Argyll. He was greatly pleased with his reception, and his Journal
records the most trifling details. What especially charmed him was the
considerate forethought in making him feel at his ease. "On Monday
morning I had the honor of planting two trees beside those planted by
Sir John Lawrence and the Marquis of Lansdowne, and by the Princess of
Prussia and the Crown Prince. The coach came at twelve o'clock, and I
finished the most delightful visit I ever made."
Next day he went to Oban, and the day after by steamer to Iona and
Staffa, and thereafter to Aros, in Mull. Next day Captain Greenhill took
him in his yacht to Ulva.
"In 1848 the kelp and potatoes failed, and the proprietor, a writer from
Stirling, reduced the population from six hundred to one hundred. None
of my family remain. The minister, Mr. Fraser, had made inquiries some
years ago, and found an old woman who remembered my grandfather living
at Uamh, or the Cave. It is a sheltered spot, with basaltic rocks
jutting out of the ground below the cave; the walls of the house remain,
and the corn and potato patches are green, but no one lives there...."
Returning to Oban on the 24th August, "... I then came to the Crinan
Canal, and at Glasgow end thereof met that famous missionary, Dr. Duff,
from India A fine, tall, noble-looking man, with a white beard and a
twitch in his muscles which shows that the Indian climate has done its
work on him.... Home to Hamilton."
The Highlanders everywhere claimed him; "they cheered me," he writes to
Sir Roderick, "as a man and a brother."
The British Association was to meet at Bath this autumn, and Livingstone
was to give a lecture on Africa. It was a dreadful thought. "Worked at
my Bath speech. A cold shiver comes over me when I think of it. Ugh!"
Then he went with his daughter Agnes to see a beautiful sight, the
launching of a Turkish frigate from Mr. Napier's yard--"8000 tons weight
plunged into the Clyde, and sent a wave of its dirty water over to the
other side." The Turkish Ambassador, Musurus Pasha, was one of the party
at Shandon, and he and Livingstone traveled in the same carriage At one
of the stations they were greatly cheered by the Volunteers. "The cheers
are for you," Livingstone said to the Ambassador, with a smile. "No,"
said the Turk "I am only what my master made me; you are what you made
yourself." When the party reached the Queen's Hotel, a working man
rushed across the road, seized Livingstone's hand, saying, "I must shake
your hand," clapped him on the back, and rushed back again. "You'll not
deny now," said the Ambassador, "that that's for you."
Returning to Hamilton, he notes, on 4th September: "Church in the
forenoon to hear a stranger, in the afternoon to hear Mr. Buchan give an
excellent sermon." On 5th, 6th, 7th, he is at the speech. On 8th he
receives a most kind invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Webb of Newstead
Abbey, to make their house his home. Mr. Webb was a very old friend, a
great hunter, who had seen Livingstone at Kolobeng, and formed an
attachment to him which continued as warm as ever to the last day of
Livingstone's life. Livingstone and his daughter Agnes reach Bath on the
15th, and become the guests of Dr. and Miss Watson, of both of whom he
writes in the highest terms.
"On Sunday, heard a good sermon from Mr. Fleming Bishop Colenso called
on me. He was very much cheered by many people; it is evident that they
admire his pluck, and consider him a persecuted man. Went to the theatre
on Monday, 19th, to deliver my address. When in the green-room, a loud
cheering was made for Bishop Colenso, and some hisses. It was a pity
that he came to the British Association, as it looks like taking sides.
Sir Charles Lyell cheered and clapped his hands in a most vigorous way.
Got over the address nicely. People very kind and indulgent--2500
persons present, but it is a place easily spoken in."
When Bishop Colenso moved the vote of thanks to Dr. Livingstone for his
address, occasion was taken by some narrow and not very scrupulous
journals to raise a prejudice against him. He was represented as sharing
the Bishop's theological views. For this charge there was no foundation,
and the preceding extract from his Journal will show that he felt the
Bishop's presence to be somewhat embarrassing. Dr. Livingstone was
eminently capable of appreciating Dr. Colenso's chivalrous backing of
native races in Africa, while he differed _toto coelo_ from his
theological views. In an entry in his Journal a few days later he refers
to an African traveler who had got a high reputation without deserving
it, for "he sank to the low estate of the natives, and rather admired
_Essays and Reviews_"
The next passage we give from his Journal refers to the melancholy end
of another brother-traveler, of whom he always spoke with respect:
"23d _Sept_.--Went to the funeral of poor Captain Speke, who, when out
shooting on the 15th, the day I arrived at Bath, was killed by the
accidental discharge of his gun. It was a sad shock to me, for, having
corresponded with him, I anticipated the pleasure of meeting him, and
the first news Dr. Watson gave me was that of his death. He was buried
at Dowlish, a village where his family have a vault. Captain Grant, a
fine fellow, put a wreath or immortelle upon the coffin as it passed us
in church. It was composed of mignonette and wild violets."
The Bath speech gave desperate offense to the Portuguese. Livingstone
thought it a good sign, wrote playfully to Mr. Webb that they were
"cussin' and swearin' dreadful," and wondered if they would keep their
senses when the book came out. In a postscript to the preface to _The
Zambesi and its Tributaries_, he says, "Senhor Lacerda has endeavored
to extinguish the facts adduced by me at Bath by a series of papers in
the Portuguese official journal; and their Minister for Foreign Affairs
has since devoted some of the funds of his Government to the translation
and circulation of Senhor Lacerda's articles in the form of an English
tract." He replies to the allegations of the pamphlet on the main
points. But he was too magnanimous to make allusion to the shameless
indecency of the personal charges against himself. "It is manifest,"
said Lacerda, "without the least reason to doubt, that Dr. Livingstone,
under the pretext of propagating the Word of God (this being the least
in which he employed himself) and the advancement of geographical and
natural science, made all his steps and exertions subservient to the
idea of ... eventually causing the loss to Portugal of the advantages of
the rich commerce of the interior, and in the end, when a favorable
occasion arose that of the very territory itself." Lacerda then quoted
the bitter letter of Mr. Rowley in illustration of Livingstone's plans
and methods, and urged remonstrance as a duty of the Portuguese
Government. "Nor," he continued, "ought the Government o£ Portugal to
stop here. It ought, as we have said, to go further; because from what
his countrymen say of Livingstone--and to which he only answers by a
mere vain negation,--from what he unhesitatingly declares of himself and
his intentions, and from what must be known to the Government by private
information from, their delegates, it is obvious that such men as
Livingstone may become extremely prejudicial to the interests of
Portugal, especially when resident in a public capacity in our African
possessions, if not efficiently watched, if their audacious and
mischievous actions are not restrained. If steps are not taken in a
proper and effective manner, so that they may be permitted only to do
good, if indeed good can come from such," etc.
"26_th Sept_.--Agnes and I go to-day to Newstead Abbey,
Notts. Reach it about 9 P.M., and find Mr. and Mrs. Webb all
I anticipated and more. A splendid old mansion with a
wonderful number of curiosities in it, and magnificent
scenery around. It was the residence of Lord Byron, and his
furniture is kept" [in his private rooms] "just as he left
it. His character does not shine. It appears to have been
horrid.... He made a drinking cup of a monk's skull found
under the high altar, with profane verses on the silver
setting, and kept his wine in the stone coffin. These Mrs.
Webb buried, and all the bones she could find that had been
desecrated by the poet."
In a letter to Sir Thomas Maclear he speaks of the poet as one of those
who, like many others--some of them travelers who abused
missionaries,--considered it a fine thing to be thought awfully
bad fellows.
"27_th_.--Went through the whole house with our kind hosts,
and saw all the wonders, which would require many days
properly to examine....
"2_d October_.--Took Communion in the chapel of the Abbey.
God grant me to be and always to act as a true Christian.
"3_d._--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. Livingstone 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 continue 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 favorite 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, reveled 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 him strongly to
Sir R. Murchison and others, and is particularly 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, North Carolina. He delivers
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 Hæmorrhoids, 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
exploration.
"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.
"How, 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 of that sheet
of water.
"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
unrivaled 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 introduction 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,
"ROD'CK I. MURCHISON."
Livingstone begins his answer by assuring Sir Roderick that he never
contemplated settling down quietly in England; 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 northwest 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 be 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 spending most of
my time in traveling, 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 myself, 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 missionary." The answer is very noteworthy
in the view of what has so often been said against Livingstone--that he
dropped 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 ecclesiastical 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
succeed 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 feelings 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 the 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. Hayward, 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
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 Shiré, 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 11th 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 proposal to this effect was submitted to him, with
the additional 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 recompense, 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 insignificant
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 Russell 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 be known, if only in
vindication of your own conduct, and to account for the little success
attending your last mission."
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 movements 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. Elwin, 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 offenses 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."
"_18th 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 _à propos_ of this examination:
"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 Christianity 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 freedom. It was not in his power to go, but, in
apologizing, he was at pains to express his opinion on the capacity of
the negro, in connection 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 encompassed 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 degradation
is a contagion which propagates itself among the more
civilized. But I have no fears as to the mental and moral
capacity of the Africans for civilization and upward
progress. We who suppose ourselves to have vaulted at one
bound to the extreme of civilization, and smack our lips so
loudly over our high elevation, may find it difficult to
realize 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 honorable rank in the family of
man."
Wherever slavery prevailed, or the effects of slavery were found, Dr.
Livingstone's testimony against it was clear and emphatic. Neither
personal friendship nor any other consideration under the sun could
repress it. When his friends Sir Roderick and Mr. Webb afterward
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."
_27th May_ (to Mr. Webb)--"I have been reading _Tom Brown's
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 other have borne more numerous losses."
"_5th June_.--Went about a tombstone for 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
imperfections, 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
attentive.... 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, 19th June_.--A telegram came, saying that mother
had died the day before. I started at once for Scotland. No
change was observed 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
help up to her. She gave her the last look, and said 'Bonnie
wee lassie,' gave a few long inspirations, 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. London, of Hamilton, the medical attendant and much-valued
friend of the Livingstones, furnishes us with a reminiscence of this
occasion. 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:
"8_th August_.--Went to Zoological Gardens with Mr. Webb and
Dr. 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 labors of the
Americans, for [the present state of Christianity] is the
fruit of their labors, and not of the present Bishop. Dined
at Lady Franklin's with Queen Emma; a nice, sensible person
the Queen seems to be.
"9_th 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!"
"11_th 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.
"12_th August_.--"Went down to Wimbledon to dine with Mr.
Murray, and take leave. Mr. and Mrs. Oswell came up to say
farewell. He offers to go over to Paris at any time to bring
Agnes" [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 communings 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.
CHAPTER XVIII.
FROM ENGLAND TO BOMBAY AND ZANZIBAR.
A.D. 1865-1866.
Object of new journey--Double scheme--He goes to Paris with Agnes--Baron
Hausmann--Anecdote at Marseilles--He reaches Bombay--Letter to
Agnes--Reminiscences of Dr. Livingstone at Bombay by Rev. D.C. Boyd--by
Alex. Brown, Esq.--Livingstone's dress--He visits the caves of
Kenhari--Rumors of murder of Baron van der Decken--He delivers a lecture
at Bombay--Great success--He sells the "Lady Nyassa"--Letter to Mr.
Young--Letter to Anna Mary--Hears that Dr. Kirk has got an
appointment--Sets out for Zanzibar in "Thule"--Letter to Mr. Young--His
experience at sea--Letter to Agnes--He reaches Zanzibar--Calls on
Sultan--Presents the "Thule" to him from Bombay Government--Monotony of
Zanzibar life--Leaves in "Penguin" for the continent.
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
civilizing 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 endeavor 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
watershed 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 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 toward 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 Livingston 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
transforming Paris [Baron Hausmann] 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 toward 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-traveler to India a little
anecdote has casually come to our knowledge illustrating the
unobtrusiveness of Livingstone--his dislike to be made a lion of. At the
_table-d'hôte_ 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. One 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 in
Cairo when he passed through, but he did not see him. Of Baker he could
hear nothing. Miss Tinné, the Dutch lady, of whom he thought highly as a
traveler, had not been very satisfactory to the religious part of the
English community 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 fearfully hot and
steamy. The "Lady Nyassa" hung like a millstone around his neck, and he
was prepared to sell her for whatever she might bring. Bombay was
reached on 11th 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 honors 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 who 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 who come out of heathenism,
and discriminate between the worthy and unworthy. You should
read Lady Buff Gordon's _Letters from, Egypt_. They show a
nice sympathizing 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 Rev. 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....
"12_th October_.--Livingstone was at the _tamasha_ 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 bearing 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[67]. I spent two hours In his society last evening at
Dr. Wilson's. He was not very complimentary to Burton. He is
to lecture in public this evening."
[Footnote 67: 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 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.]
Another friend, Mr. Alexander Brown, now of Liverpool, sends a brief
note of a very delightful excursion given by him, in honor 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 Buddhist 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. Doctor 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 in which pleasure and
instruction, under circumstances of no little interest, were
so delightfully combined."
At Bombay he heard disquieting tidings of the Hanoverian traveler, Baron
van der Decken. In his Journal he says:
"29_th 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 conciliate 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 rumor of the Baron's death was subsequently confirmed. 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, Free Church
Missionary, was in the chair, and after the lecture tried to rouse the
Bombay merchants, and especially the Scotch ones, 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 luxuries 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 responsible for results." In
reference to the investment of the money, it was intended ultimately to
be sunk in Government 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 afterward; and thus the
whole of the £6000, which the vessel had cost Livingstone, vanished
into air.
His little daughter Anna Mary had a good share of his attention at
Bombay:
"24_th 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, 1860, 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 honor of
being commissioned to present to the Sultan of Zanzibar, as a present
from Sir Bartle Frere and the Bombay Government.
We give a few extracts from his journal at sea:
"17_th January_.--Issued flannel to all the boys from
Nassick; 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 profession 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!"
"23_d January_.--My second book has been reviewed very
favorably by the _Athenæum_ 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 humor at a mutual Edinburgh acquaintance who had
mistaken an order about a magic lantern:
"_At sea_, 300 _miles from Zanzibar_, 26_th 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
colored, 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 Burk 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 invaluable on the East Coast."
To his daughter Agnes he writes, _à 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
old cure for 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 sympathize 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 scrutinized 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 Widdieombe 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 it."
Referring 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 Hocédé 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 afterward. I am so penetrated with admiration of
her that I enclose the wing of a flying-fish for her. It
lighted among us last night, while we were at dinner, coming
right through the skylight. 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:
"29_th Jan_.--We went to call to-day on the Sultan. His
Highness 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 sufficient 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
with 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 Maclear 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 Continent.
CHAPTER XIX.
FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI.
A.D. 1866-1869.
Dr. Livingstone goes to mouth of Rovuma--His prayer--His company--His
herd of animals--Loss of his buffaloes--Good spirits when setting
out--Difficulties at Rovuma--Bad conduct of Johanna men--Dismissal of
his Sepoys--Fresh horrors of slave-trade--Uninhabited tract--He reaches
Lake Nyassa--Letter to his son Thomas--Disappointed hopes--His double
aim, to teach natives and rouse horror of slave-trade--Tenor of
religious addresses--Wikatami remains behind--Livingstone finds no
altogether satisfactory station for commerce and missions--Question of
the watershed--Was it worth the trouble?--Overruled for good to
Africa--Opinion of Sir Bartle Frere--At Marenga's--The Johanna men leave
in a body--Circulate rumor of his murder--Sir Roderick disbelieves
it--Mr. E.D. Young sent out with Search Expedition--Finds proof against
rumor--Livingstone half-starved--Loss of his goats--Review of
1866--Reflections on Divine Providence--Letter to Thomas--His dog
drowned--Loss of his medicine-chest--He feels sentence of death passed
on him--First sight of Lake Tanganyika--Detained at
Chitimba's--Discovery of Lake Moero--Occupations during detention of
1867--Great privations and difficulties--Illness--Rebellion among his
men--Discovery of Lake Bangweolo--Its oozy
banks--Detention--Sufferings--He makes for Ujiji--Very severe illness in
beginning of 1869--Reaches Ujiji--Finds his goods have been wasted and
stolen--Most bitter disappointment--His medicines, etc., at
Unyanyembe--Letter to Sultan of Zanzibar--Letters to Dr. Moffat and
his daughter.
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," Livingstone 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 Shupanga men, had been woodcutters 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 purpose except the benefit of Africa? 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 civilization 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 setting out, something of the
exhilarating feeling of a young traveler starting on his first tour in
Switzerland, deepened by the sense of nobility which there is in every
endeavor to do good to others. "The mere animal pleasure of traveling 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 harbor, and find his way
down to the river farther 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 Makondé--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 unkindly, 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
property 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 was trying to bind up the part. The slave-trade utterly
demoralized the people; the Arabs bought whoever was brought to them,
and the great extent of forest in the country favored 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 cloths 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 gratifying 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 endeavor 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 Mataka's, with cattle for him,
"who had two eyes behind as well as two in front--news enough for
awhile." 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
Shiré leaves Nyassa, he could not but think of disappointed hopes--the
death of his dear wife, and of the Bishop, the increasing vigor 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
neighborhood, and resuming the old work of the Universities Mission; and
his own countrymen planted his name on the promontory on which he gazed
so sorrowfully, training the poor natives in the arts of civilization,
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 Mukaté, 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."
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 and missionary
settlement, independent of the Portuguese. In this hope he was rather
disappointed. The 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
afterward; but it would not command the Nyassa district. On the whole he
preferred the Zambesi and Shiré valley, with all their difficulties. But
the Rovuma was not hopeless, and indeed, within the last few years, the
Universities 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 Roderick 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
life-time 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-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 traveler had supposed--far higher than Lake Victoria
Nyanza, and that it would be a service to religion as well as science to
discover 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 Registrar of Minerva in the temple of Saïs,
that individual was not joking, as the father of history supposed. He
thought that in the watershed the two conical hills, Crophi and Mophi
might be found, and the fountains between them which it was impossible
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 inhumanity and horrors of the
slave-traffic--sights that harrowed his inmost soul; and that when his
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, 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 Christianizing and civilizing 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 travelers 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 Civilization
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 persons, 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 northwestern shore, and was pushing on west or northwest,
when, between Marenga and Maklisoora, a band of savages stopped their
way, and rushed on him and his small band of followers, now reduced to
twenty. Livingstone fired twice, and killed two; but, in the act of
reloading, three Mafite leaped 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 committed 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
conclusiveness 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
organize 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 missing. 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 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[68]. No enterprise could have brought more satisfactory results,
and all in the incredibly short period of eight months.
[Footnote 68: See _The Search for Livingstone_, by E.D. Young: London,
1868.]
Meanwhile, Livingstone, little thinking of all the commotion 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 favor; truth--truthfulness,
sincerity, honor--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 time to time: "It
seems to 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 minutiæ. An
astronomer cannot 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,' '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 in 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 Chimbwé];
"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 himself. 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 signalized by a great calamity, and 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
Chitimba's, he is detained upward of three months, in consequence 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'
traveling 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 a fierce
chief, who rules his people with great tyranny, cutting off their ears,
and even their hands, for the most trivial offenses. Persons so
mutilated, seen in his village, excite a feeling of horror. This chief
was not one easily got at, but Livingstone 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 Chambezé rises in
the country of Mambwé, N.E. of Molemba; it then flows
southwest 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 Urengé or Ulengé. 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 disappointments! 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 occupations 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
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 vermicelli, 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 signalized 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 underground 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 favorable 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
companion, 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
demoralized 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 blame 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 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 'coming 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.
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 northward by the river Lualaba, were connected with the Nile
system. Dr. Livingstone was strongly inclined to believe that this
connection existed; but toward 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 humor he
tells how, when lying in an open shed, with all his men around him, he
dreamed 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 11th of December, 1868, with the Arabs, who
are bound eastward for Ujiji. It is a motley group, composed 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, while 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 paralyzed with its fangs."
New Year's Day, 1869, found Livingstone laboring under a worse attack
of illness than any he had ever had before. For ten weeks to come his
situation was as painful 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
prayer was that he might hold out to Ujiji, where he expected 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 were 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.
"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 behavior. 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 pass 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 purpose was doubtless to prevent carelessness in
executing his orders, such as might have arisen had it been deemed
uncertain 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 reviewing 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 humor occur: "I broke my teeth tearing at 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 regret at his
disinterested answer to Lord Palmerston.
CHAPTER XX.
MANYUEMA.
A.D. 1869-1871.
He sets out to explore Manyuema and the river Lualaba--Loss of forty-two
letters--His feebleness through illness--He arrives at Bambarré--Becomes
acquainted with the soko or gorilla--Reaches the Luama
River--Magnificence of the country--Repulsiveness of the people--Cannot
get a canoe to explore the Lualaba--Has to return to Bambarré--Letter to
Thomas, and retrospect of his life--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr.
Mann--Miss Tinné--He is worse in health than ever, yet resolves to add
to his programme and go round Lake Bangweolo--Letter to Agnes--Review of
the past--He sets out anew in a more northerly direction--Overpowered by
constant wet--Reaches Nyangwe--Long detention--Letter to his brother
John--Sense of difficulties and troubles--Nobility of his spirit--He
sets off with only three attendants for the Lualaba--Suspicions of the
natives--Influence of Arab traders--Frightful difficulties of the
way--Lamed by foot-sores--Has to return to Bambarré--Long and wearisome
detention--Occupations--Meditations and reveries--Death no
terror--Unparalleled position and trials--He reads his Bible from
beginning to end four times--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--To Agnes--His
delight at her sentiments about his coming home--Account of the
soko--Grief to hear of death of Lady Murchison--Wretched character of
men sent from Zanzibar--At last sets out with
Mohamad--Difficulties--Slave-trade most horrible--Cannot get canoes for
Lualaba--Long waiting--New plan--Frustrated by horrible massacre on
banks of Lualaba--Frightful scene--He must return to Ujiji--New
illness--Perils of journey to Ujiji--Life three times endangered in one
day--Reaches Ujiji--Shereef has sold off his goods--He is almost in
despair--Meets Henry M. Stanley and is relieved--His contributions to
Natural Science during last journeys--Professor Owen in the
_Quarterly Review_.
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
favorable 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 even 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
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 Manyuema, in order
to examine the river Lualaba, and determine 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, refreshed 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 Bambarré, in Manyuema, the village
of the Chief Moenékuss. 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 interesting direction. "Do people die with you?"
asked two intelligent young men. "Have you no 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 Bambarré till the 1st of November, and then went westward
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."
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 Lualaba, so that there was nothing for it but to return to Bambarré,
which was reached on the 19th December, 1869.
A long letter to his son Thomas (Town of Moenékuss, Manyuema Country,
24th September, 1869) gives a retrospect 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
Moenékuss, a principal chief among the reputed cannibals. His
name means 'Lord of the light-gray 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 assistance that can be rendered, and I cease
not to beg the Lord who healeth his people to be gracious to
your infirmity.
"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 of been of the mind of St. 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
slaveocracy 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 frightened 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 'instructions' for me, and the
watershed was not mentioned. But scientific words were used
which the writers evidently did not understand.
"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 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 the 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 traveling 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 whitebait. 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
rediscovery of what had fallen into oblivion, like the
circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenican 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 or 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 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 honor 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 but what people call a great name to bequeath
afterward. 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 horrified
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 clove-hitch, 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 cannibals, but not ostentatiously so. 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 homeward through Karagwe. As ivory-trading is here 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
distressing....
"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
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 discovered, on the watershed, the true
sources of the Nile. He refers in a generous spirit to the discoveries
of other travelers, mistaken though he regarded their views on the
sources, and is particularly complimentary to Miss Tinné:
"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 pushing 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
conceive of her stopping short of Bangweolo. She showed such
indomitable 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 afterward."
"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, 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 outside 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 traveled 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 difficulties, 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 travelers and their achievements, real and supposed. He
returns again to the achievements of ladies, and praises Miss Tinné and
other women. "The death-knell of American slavery was rung by a woman's
hand. We great he-beasts say Mrs. Stowe exaggerated. 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 Shiré 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 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 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 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 persevere 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 northwest 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. 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 attendants, he had to limp back to Bambarré, 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 wickedness 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 Bambarré 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
unwearied labor for the abolition of the slave-trade. The lake formed by
the Lufira is to be Lincoln Lake, in gratitude 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 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[69]."
[Footnote 69: See _Last Journals_. vol. ii. pp 65, 66.]
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 a strong
presentiment 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
sentences 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 tantalized
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 befallen, and an incompetent leader had broken up
the enterprise. Yet, apart from his sense of duty, there was 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 the 3d
October, 1871[70]. 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 hope 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
testimony against man, who will not retain God in his knowledge, 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 righteousness--yes, he can appreciate _that_ attribute--the
curse gone, death abolished, and all tears wiped from the mourner's eye!
[Footnote 70: See _Last Journals_, vol. ii. p. 154.]
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 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 Aulocaudatus 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
intelligent 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, 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.
Compared 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 afterward 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 Bambarré, 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 Mohamed, 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 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 traveled 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 Christianized, were next best--honest,
truthful, and brave. Heathen Africans are much superior to
the Mohammedans, who are the most worthless one can have."
Toward 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, Dugumbé, 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
perplexed, and grieve and mourn."
The New Year 1871 passes while he is at Bambarré, 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 disappointment. 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
head-men, Shereef and Awathe, had refused to come farther than Ujiji,
and were reveling 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 two years of time, about a thousand
pounds in money, had some 2000 miles of useless traveling, 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 woefully difficult to pass through.
Perhaps it was hardly a less bitter disappointment to be told, on the
25th, that the Lualaba flowed west-southwest, 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 rumor 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. Mohamad'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 discouragements 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 afterward 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 there, 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 Dugumbé £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 Lomamé to
Katanga, then returning and going up Tanganyika to Ujiji. Dugumbé took a
little time to consult his friends before replying to the offer.
Meanwhile an event occurred of unprecedented horror, that showed
Livingstone that he could not go to Lomamé in the company of Dugumbé.
Between Dugumbé'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 on
Livingstone, that we copy at full length the description of it given in
the _Last Journals:_
"Before I had got thirty yards out, the discharge of two guns
in the middle of the crowd told me 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
toward 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
perishing. 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 toward
the bank, and escaped. Dugumbé put people into one of the
deserted vessls 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.
Dugumbé 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 subject. The intestinal canal had given way, and he was
subject to attacks of severe internal hæmorrhage, one of which came on
him now[71]. It appeared afterward that had he gone with Dugumbé, 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 disappointments work for good.
[Footnote 71: His friends say that for a considerable time before he had
been subject to the most grievous pain from hæmorrhoids. His sufferings
were often excruciating.]
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[72]. 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 Thy he was prostrated with grievous illness. As soon as he could
move he went onward, 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 abundant of goods and comforts were no doubt safely stowed away
for him, and the hope of relief sustained him under all his trials.
[Footnote 72: The head of this spear is among the Livingstone relics at
Newstead Abbey.]
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 Livingstone 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 traveler 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 as 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 southwest, 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, Jr., of the _New York Herald_ newspaper, grasped the hand of
David Livingstone. An angel from heaven 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 traveler. 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 contributions 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 Livingstone's reasoning and
observations, that the Nile sources were in the Bangweolo watershed--a
supposition now ascertained 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 zoölogy 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.
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
encountered! 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 was 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 explaining
the annual inundations of most of the rivers. Wherever there was a plain
sloping toward 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 Shiré, and
taking the different times for the sun's passage north of the equator,
it explained the inundations 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 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 outward
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 labor, 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 honor 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 teaching 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 the benefit[73]."
[Footnote 73: _Quarterly Review_, April, 1875, pp. 498, 499.]
CHAPTER XXI.
LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY.
A.D. 1871-1872.
Mr. Gordon Bennett sends Stanley in search of Livingstone--Stanley at
Zanzibar--Starts for Ujiji--Reaches Unyanyembe--Dangerous illness--War
between Arabs and natives--Narrow escape of Stanley--Approach to
Ujiji--Meeting with Livingstone--Livingstone's story--Stanley's
news--Livingstone's goods and men at Bagamoio--Stanley's accounts of
Livingstone--Refutation of foolish and calumnious charges--They go to
the north of the lake--Livingstone resolves not to go home, but to get
fresh men and return to the sources--Letter to Agnes--to Sir Thomas
Maclear--The travelers go to Unyanyembe--More plundering of
stores--Stanley leaves for Zanzibar--Stanley's bitterness of heart at
parting--Livingstone's intense gratitude to Stanley--He intrusts his
Journal to him, and commissions him to send servants and stores from
Zanzibar--Stanley's journey to the coast--Finds Search Expedition at
Bagamoio--Proceeds to England--Stanley's reception--Unpleasant
feelings--Éclaircissement--England grateful to Stanley.
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 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 Zanzibar; 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 Zanzibar. To
organize 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 vigor and perseverance
succeeded, and by the end of February and beginning of March, one
hundred and ninety-two persons in all had started in five caravans at
short intervals from 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 consternation 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
toward him," says Mr. Stanley, "I noticed he was pale, looked wearied,
had a gray beard, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, had
on a red-sleeved waistcoat and a pair of gray 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 he, being an Englishman, I did not
know how he would receive me; so I did what cowardice and false pride
suggested was the best thing--walked deliberately to him, took off my
hat and said, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' '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 then I 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
knowledge 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?
"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
notebook 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 marvelous 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, revived emotions that had lain
dormant in Manyuema." As 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 Bagamoio, although
several caravans for Ujiji had left in the meantime. On hearing that the
Consul at Zanzibar, Dr. Kirk, was coming to the neighborhood 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 afterward 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[74]. The unpleasant feeling he had had so long as to
his treatment 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 squandered, like his other goods, before he could
reach them.
[Footnote 74: The intimation of salary was premature. Livingstone got a
pension of £800 afterward, which lasted only for a year and a half.]
The impression made on Stanley by Livingstone was remarkably vivid; and
the portrait drawn by the American will be recognized 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 color yet, but is
here and there streaked with gray lines over the temples; his
beard and moustaches are very gray. His 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,
misanthropic temper; some have said that he is garrulous;
that he is demented; that he is 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
statements. 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. Livingstone 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 humor, 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
analyze 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 out right at
last'; he has such faith in the goodness of Providence. The
sport of adverse circumstances, the plaything 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 civilized 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 Teufelsdröckh'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 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 especially 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 toward his servants but toward 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 gentleman; the crude and willful
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 Mohammedans never passed his house without
calling to pay their compliments, 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
afterward delivers a short address in the Kisawahili
language, about the subject read to them, which is listened
to with evident interest and attention."
It was agreed that the two travelers 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 Lugizé flowed into the lake, so that the notion that the
lake discharged itself northward turned out to be an error. Meanwhile,
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 flooded plains, encounter anew that terrible
pneumonia which was "worse than ten fevers," or that distressing
hæmorrhage 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 honors from all who had honors to confer, 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 honorable 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, organize a new expedition composed of fifty or sixty faithful men
to be sent on to Unyanyembe, by whom Livingstone would be accompanied
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_, 18_th 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 Englishman being at Unyamyembe 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
kettles, showed that he was not a poor Lazarus like me. He
turned out to be Henry M. Stanley, traveling correspondent of
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
Unyamyembe. 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 friend Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann, of the same
date, goes over his travels in Manyuema, his many disasters, and then
his wonderful meeting with Mr. Stanley at Ujiji. 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 suppression 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 heat
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: "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 travelers 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.
Notwithstanding, 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 14th 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.
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 delirium? 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,' Livingstone
replied, 'I will say this to you: You have done what few men could
do,--far better than some great travelers 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, I 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 somewhat 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 traveling 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 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 inefficency and
worthlessness 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 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 confidental friend for four months--the
only white man to whom he talked for six years. It was matter of life
and death to Livingstone to be supplied for this concluding 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, who,
with all their good-will, had not been able to save him from robbery,
beggary, and a half-broken heart.
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 Search Expedition which the Royal
Geographical Society and others had sent out to look for Livingstone.
The resolution to organize such an Expedition was taken after news had
come to England of the war between the Arabs and the natives at
Unyanyembe, stopping the communication 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, R.N., with Lieutenant Henn as second, and was joined by the Rev.
Charles New, a Missionary from Mombasa, 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 owing
to the state of his health, and under the advice of Dr. Kirk, he, too,
declined to accompany the Expedition, so that the men from Zanzibar
proceeded to Unyanyembe alone.
On the 29th of May, Stanley, with Messrs. Henn, Livingstone, 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
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
correspondent, a citizen of another country. On a small scale 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 overwhelmed with
gratitude. At first the Royal Geographical Society received him coldly.
Instead of his finding Livingstone, it was surmised that 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 apologized
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 civilized world.
CHAPTER XXII.
FROM UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO.
A.D. 1872-73.
Livingstone's long wait at Unyanyembe--His plan of operations--His
fifty-ninth, birthday--Renewal of self-dedication--Letters to Agnes--to
_New York Herald_--Hardness of the African battle--Waverings of
judgment, whether Lualaba was the Nile or the Congo--Extracts from
Journal--Gleams of humor--Natural history--His distress on hearing of
the death of Sir Roderick Murchison--Thoughts on mission-work--Arrival
of his escort--His happiness in his new men--He starts from
Unyanyembe--Illness--Great amount of rain--Near Bangweolo--Incessant
moisture--Flowers of the forest--Taking of observations regularly
prosecuted--Dreadful state of the country from rain--Hunger--Furious
attack of ants--Greatness of Livingstone's sufferings--Letters to Sir
Thomas Maclear, Mr. Young, his brother, and Agnes--His sixtieth
birthday--Great weakness in April--Sunday services and observations
continued--Increasing illness--The end approaching--Last written
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--Carried toward
shore--Dangers and sufferings during the march--The party meet
Lieutenant Cameron at Unyanyembe--Determine to go on--_Ruse_ at
Kasekéra--Death of Dr. Dillon--The party reach Bagamoio, and the remains
are placed on board a cruiser--The Search Expeditions from England--to
East Coast under Cameron--to West Coast under Grandy--Explanation of
Expeditions by Sir Henry Rawlinson--Livingstone's remains brought to
England--Examined by Sir W. Fergusson and others--Buried in Westminster
Abbey--Inscription on slab--Livingstone's wish for a forest grave--Lines
from _Punch_--Tributes to his memory--Sir Bartle Frere--The
_Lancet_--Lord Polwarth--Florence Nightingale.
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 Zanzibar Stanley left on the 14th March; Livingstone
calculated 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 traveler 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 Chambeze, 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, northeast 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:
"19_th March, Birthday_.--My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All;
I again dedicate my whole self to Thee. Accept me, and grant,
O gracious Father, that ere this year is gone I may finish my
task. In Jesus' name I ask it. Amen. So let it be. DAVID
LIVINGSTONE."
Frequent letters were written to his daughter from Unyanyembe, and they
dwelt a good deal upon his difficulties, 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 Stanley was, "altogether he has behaved
right nobly."
On the 1st May he finished a letter for the _New York Herald_, and asked
God's blessing on it. It contained the memorable words afterward
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_th 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
probability of his being in error:
"2l_st 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?_"
"31_st May_.--In reference to this Nile source, I have been
kept in perpetual doubt and perplexity. I know too much to be
positive. Great Lualaba, or Lualubba, as Manyuema say, may
turn out to be the Congo, and Nile a shorter river after
all[75]. The fountains flowing north and south seem in favor
of its being the Nile. Great westing is in favor of
the Congo."
[Footnote 75: From false punctuation, this passage is
unintelligible in the _Last Journals_, vol. ii. p. 193.]
"24_th 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 homoeopathic 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 honor 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
unexampled risks and hardships before he would affirm his favorite 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 disappointment; 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 humor: "18_th June_.--The
Ptolemaic map defines people according to their food,--the
Elephantophagi, the Struthiophagi, the Ichthiophagi, and the
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: "19_th 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. 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, 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 confidence I placed in the undying vigor 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 his own
country.' But that consummation was not to be. He himself was gathered
to his rest just six days before Stanley brought news and relief to the
forlorn traveler 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[76]."
[Footnote 76: _Life of Sir R. I. Murchison_, vol. ii. pp. 297-8.]
At other times he is ruminating on mission-work:
"10_th July_.--No great difficulty would be encountered in
establishing 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 explanation to others; but I have avoided
giving offense to intelligent Arabs, who, having pressed me,
asking if I believed in Mohamed, by saying, 'No, I do not; I
am a child of Jesus bin Miriam,' avoiding anything offensive
in my tone, and often adding that Mohamed 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 recognized. 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 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,
rain, mist, swollen streams, and swampy ground became familiar. At the
end of the year they were approaching the river Chambeze. 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--_Methonica 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, composite of blood-red color
and of purple; other flowers of liver color, 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 colored asclepiadeæ; beautiful yellow
and red umbelliferous flowering 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."
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, most 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 CENTRAL AFRICA.
"MY DEAR FRIENDS MACLEAR 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 afterward 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 eighteen months. It is like one of our Caffre wars, with
this difference--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
oppressively green; rain so often that no observations could
be made, except at wide intervals. I could form no opinion as
to our longitude, 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 observations. 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 southeastward 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 Zambesi,
they all thought it to be a branch of the river that flows
past Tette, Senna, and Shupanga, by Luabo and Kongoné 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 true
native name of the northern river, Zambesi is not the name of
the southern river at all. It is a Portugese 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.
'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 Banyamwezi. He gave me the first hint
of the truth, and that rather in a bantering strain: 'One
piece of water is just like another; Bangweolo 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° 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 Rudiments 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 be 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 favored in their lot. I would not
be a member of the 'International,' 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 weakened now, as I seem to see the
end toward which I have been striving looming in the distance. This
presentiment 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 superior 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 favor,
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 with 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, O
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, 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 kitanda 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[77] 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 R. Molilamo."
[Footnote 77: This was the eleventh anniversary of his wife's death.]
The word "recover" seems to show that he had no presentiment of death,
but cherished the hope of recovery; and Mr. Waller has pointed out, from
his own sad observation 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 instances, 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 of 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 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 connected 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 out, 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 Journals_ tells us how calmly yet efficiently they set
to work. Arrangements were made for drying and embalming 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 inward 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 wonderfully 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
disappointed 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 Livingstone'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 instruments with which all Livingstone's observations had been made
for a series of seven years, and use them, though only temporarily, for
the purpose of his Expedition, inasmuch 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 Lieutenant Murphy, not
much to the promotion of unity of action or harmonious feeling. At
Kasekéra 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 Kasekéra had now no suspicion, and allowed the party to pass
unmolested. But though one tragedy was averted, another was enacted at
Kasekéra--the dreadful suicide of Dr. Dillon while suffering from
dysentery and fever.
The cortége 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 honor 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 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, organized 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 was 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, _November_ 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
arrangements, 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 out 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 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 becoming 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 O. 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[78], 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 Saville Row.
[Footnote 78: Thomas never regained robust health. He died at
Alexandria, 15th March, 1876.]
In the course of the evening the remains were examined by Sir William
Fergusson and several other medical gentleman, including Dr. Loudon, of
Hamilton, whose professional skill and great kindness to his family had
gained for him a high place in the esteem and love of Livingstone. 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
recognized 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 traveler 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 a last 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, Rev. 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
throughout, 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."
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, TRAVELER, PHILANTHROPIST,
BORN MARCH 19, 1813,
AT BLANTYRE, LANARKSHIRE.
DIED MAY 4,[79] 1873,
AT CHITAMBO'S VILLAGE, ILALA.
[Footnote 79: In the _Last Journals_ the date is 1st May; on
the stone, 4th May. The attendants could not quite
determine the day.]
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,
and 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 SÆCULA TANTA LATEHTES.
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
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 fornent the sun.'"
"He who is over all" decreed that while his heart should lie in a 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
hath anointed me to preach good tidings to 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 colors, 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 well repay.
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 colors of
the rhetorician, the ingenuity of the partisan, or the enthusiasm of the
hero-worshiper. 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 civilized mankind.
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 and said and did by the highest and most chivalrous
spirit, modeled 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 unequaled as a scientific traveler, 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 civilization. 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 darkest 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."
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 freshness, and the
impulse it gives just now, may fade; but his prayers will be had in
everlasting remembrance, and unspeakable 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 honored servant, and adore the gracious Master."
Lastly, we give the beautiful wreath of Florence Nightingale, also in
the form of a letter to Dr. Livingstone's daughter:
"LONDON, _Feb._ 18_th_,1874.
"DEAR MISS LIVINGSTONE,--I am only one of all England 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 travelers. But Dr. Livingstone stood
alone as the great Missionary Traveler, the bringer-in of
civilization; or rather the pioneer of civilization--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.
"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 irreplaceable.
"It is not sad that he should have died out there. Perhaps 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 completed
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 out 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, 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.
History of his life not completed at his death--Thrilling effect of the
tragedy of Ilala--Livingstone's influence on the slave-trade--His
letters from Manyuema--Sir Bartle Frere's mission to
Zanzibar--Successful efforts of Dr. Kirk with Sultan of Zanzibar--The
land route--The sea route--Slave-trade declared illegal--Egypt--The
Soudan--Colonel Gordon--Conventions with Turkey--King Mtesa of
Uganda--Nyassa district--Introduction of lawful commerce--Various
commercial enterprises in progress--Influence of Livingstone on
exploration--Enterprise of newspapers--Exploring undertakings of various
nations--Livingstone's personal service to science--His hard work in
science the cause of respect--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, Inland, Baptist, and American
missions--Medical missions--The Fisk Livingstone hall--Livingstone's
great legacy to Africa, a spotless Christian name and character--Honors
of the future.
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 civilized world when his death and all its
touching circumstances became known, did more for Africa than he could
have done had he completed 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 vigor 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
continent 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 seven 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 suppress the slave-trade, the progress of commercial
undertakings, 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 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
favorable 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
resignation 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. To
use his own words, recently spoken to a friend, he cut off the
slave-dealers in their strongholds, and he made all his people love him.
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.
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 confidence in the Queen's speech on 5th February,
1880, if the tenor of it be as it has been reported in the _Temps_
newspaper, 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
smuggling business after it has been declared illegal. In the Nyassa
district, from which to a large extent it has disappeared, it is by no
means suppressed. It is quite conceivable 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 object of
Livingstone's life will therefore do well to urge her Majesty's
Ministers, members of Parliament, and all who have influence, to renewed
and unremitting efforts toward the complete and final abolition of the
traffic throughout the whole of Africa. To this consummation the honor
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. Animated by the memory of his four months'
fellowship with Livingstone, Mr. Stanley has undertaken the exploration
of the Congo or Livingstone River, because it was a work that
Livingstone desired to be done. With a body of Kroomen and others he is
now at work making a road from near Banza Noki to Stanley Pool. He takes
a steamer in sections to be put together above the Falls, and with it he
intends to explore and to open to commerce the numerous great navigable
tributaries of the Livingstone River. Mr. Stanley has already
established steam communication between the French station near the
mouth of the Congo and his own station near Banza Noki or Embomma. The
"Livingstone Central African Company, Limited," with Mr. James
Stevenson, of Glasgow, as chairman, 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 civilization. France, Belgium, Germany, and
Italy have all been active in promoting 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 Shiré. 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
civilization, 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 galaxy of modern African travelers, 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 traveler. 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 and the _Daily Telegraph_,
the two papers united to send Mr. Stanley "to fresh woods and pastures
new." 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
enterprise resulting from Brussels Conference; the French researches of
Lieutenant de Semellé and of de Brazza; the various German Expeditions
of Dr. Lenz, Dr. Pogge, Dr. Fischer, and Herr Denhardts; and the
Portuguese exploration on the west, 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 travelers who have led immoral lives
and sought their own amusement only, and traders who by trafficking in
rum and such things have demoralized the natives, they have only shown
that in some natures selfishness is too deeply imbedded to be affected
by the noblest examples.
Livingstone himself traveled 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 traverse 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 tormented with
pain. He strove after an accurate notion of the form and structure of
the continent; Investigated its geology, hydrography, botany, and
zoölogy; 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--honored 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 marvelous expansion of missionary
enterprise in Africa since Livingstone's death. 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 purposes of life. Mr. Monk wrote 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 Shiré 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 begun in 1875,
has now three stations on the lake, and has won the highest commendation
of such travelers as the late Consul Elton[80]. Much of the success of
this enterprise 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[81]. In concert with the "Livingstone Central
African Company," considerable progress has been made in exploring the
neighboring 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[82]. It
would have gratified Livingstone to think that in conducting this
settlement several of the Scotch Churches were practically at one--Free,
Reformed, and United Presbyterian; while at Blantyre, on the Shiré, the
Established Church of Scotland, with a mission and a colony of
mechanics, has taken its share in the work.
[Footnote 80: _Lakes and Mountains of Africa_, pp. 277, 280.]
[Footnote 81: See his work. _Nyassa_: London, 1877.]
[Footnote 82: See _Transactions of Royal Geographical Society_, 1880.]
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 measure of prosperity which has never been
interrupted during the three or four years of its existence. 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, as we write, we hear accounts of a change of policy which is
grievously disappointing. Lake Tanganyika has been occupied by the
London Missionary Society.
The "Société des Missions Évangéliques," of Paris, has made preparations
for occupying the Barotse Valley, near the head-waters of the Zambesi.
The Livingstone Inland Mission has some missionaries on the Atlantic
Coast at the mouth of the Congo, and others who are working inward,
while a monthly journal is edited by Mrs. Grattan Guinness, entitled
_The Regions Beyond_. The Baptist Missionary Society has a mission in
the same district, toward the elucidation of which the Rev. J. T.
Comber's _Explorations Inland from Mount Cameroons and through Congo to
Mkouta_ have thrown considerable light.
More recently still, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, having resolved to devote to Africa Mr. Otis's munificent
bequest 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
Bihé and the Coanza, an upland tract to the east of Benguela, healthy
and suitable for European colonization, and as yet not occupied by any
missionary body. Thus the Old World and the New are joining their forces
for the evangelization of Africa. And they are not only occupying
regions which Livingstone recommended, but are trying to work his
principle of combining colonization 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 entertained, 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 colored people for African 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 every where with its great missionary explorer. From
the first day of his sojourn in Africa to the last, "patient continuance
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 civilized 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 toward the coast was a crowning proof of the love
he inspired.
Nearly every day some new token comes to light of the affection and
honor with which he was regarded all over 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 statement, that ten years ago a white man,
the donor of the coat, had traveled with him to Mataka's, whom to have
once seen and talked with was to remember for life; a white man who
treated black men as his brothers, and whose memory would be cherished
all along the Rovuma 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 honor is that of DAVID LIVINGSTONE. Mabotsa,
Chonuane, and Kolobeng will be visited with 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 when the
question is asked what made him so great and so good, the answer will
be, that he lived by the faith of the Son of God, and that the love of
Christ constrained him to live and die for Africa.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
EXTRACTS FROM PAPER ON "MISSIONARY SACRIFICES."
It is something to be a missionary. The morning stars sang together and
all the sons of God shouted for joy, when they first saw the field which
the first missionary was to fill. The great and terrible God, before
whom angels veil their faces, had an Only Son, and He was sent to the
habitable parts of the earth as a missionary physician. It is something
to be a follower, however feeble, in the wake of the Great Teacher and
only Model Missionary that ever appeared among men; and now that He is
Head over all things, King of kings and Lord of lords, what commission
is equal to that which the missionary holds from Him? May we venture to
invite young men of education, when laying down the plan of their lives,
to take a glance at that of missionary? We will magnify the office.
The missionary is sent forth as a messenger of the Churches, after
undergoing the scrutiny and securing the approbation of a host of
Christian ministers, who, by their own talent and worth, have risen to
the pastorate over the most intelligent and influential churches in the
land, and who, moreover, can have no motive to influence their selection
but the desire to secure the most efficient instrumentality for the
missionary work. So much care and independent investigation are bestowed
on the selection as to make it plain that extraneous influences can have
but small power. No pastor can imagine that any candidate has been
accepted through his recommendations, however warm these may have been;
and the missionary may go forth to the heathen, satisfied that in the
confidence of the directors he has a testimonial infinitely superior to
letters-apostolic from the Archbishop of Canterbury, or from the Vatican
at Borne. A missionary, surely, cannot undervalue his commission, as
soon as it is put into his hands.
But what means the lugubrious wail that too often bursts from the circle
of his friends? The tears shed might be excused if he were going to
Norfolk Island at the Government expense. But sometimes the missionary
note is pitched on the same key. The white cliffs of Dover become
immensely dear to those who never cared for masses of chalk before.
Pathetic plaints are penned about laying their bones on a foreign shore,
by those who never thought of making aught of their bones at home.
(Bone-dust is dear nowhere, we think.) And then there is the
never-ending talk and wringing of hands over missionary "sacrifices."
The man is surely going to be hanged, instead of going to serve in
Christ's holy Gospel! Is this such service as He deserves who, though
rich, for our sakes became poor? There is so much in the _manner_ of
giving; some bestow their favors so gracefully, their value to the
recipient is doubled. From others, a gift is as good as a blow in the
face. Are we not guilty of treating our Lord somewhat more scurvily than
we would treat our indigent fellow-men? We stereotype the word "charity"
in our language, as applicable to a contribution to his cause. "So many
charities,--we cannot afford them." Is not the word ungraciously applied
to the Lord Jesus, as if He were a poor beggar, and an unworthy one too?
His are the cattle on a thousand hills, the silver and the gold; and
worthy is the Lamb that was slain. We treat Him ill. Bipeds of the
masculine gender assume the piping phraseology of poor old women in
presence of Him before whom the Eastern Magi fell down and
worshiped,--ay, and opened their treasures, and presented unto Him
gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They will give their "mites" as if
what they do give were their "all." It is utterly unfair to magnify the
little we do for Him by calling it a sacrifice, or pretend we are doing
all we can by assuming the tones of poor widows. He asks a willing mind,
cheerful obedience; and can we not give that to Him who made his
Father's will in our salvation as his meat and his drink, till He bowed
his head and gave up the ghost?
Hundreds of young men annually leave our shores as cadets. All their
friends rejoice when they think of them bearing the commissions of our
Queen. When any dangerous expedition is planned by Government, more
volunteers apply than are necessary to man it. On the proposal to send a
band of brave men in search of Sir John Franklin, a full complement for
the ships could have been procured of officers alone, without any common
sailors. And what thousands rushed to California, from different parts
of America, on the discovery of the gold! How many husbands left their
wives and families! How many Christian men tore themselves away from all
home endearments to suffer, and toil, and perish by cold and starvation
on the overland route! How many sank from fever and exhaustion on the
banks of Sacramento! Yet no word of sacrifices there. And why should we
so regard all we give and do for the Well-beloved of our souls? Our talk
of sacrifices is ungenerous and heathenish....
It is something to be a missionary. He is sometimes inclined, in seasons
of despondency and trouble, to feel as if forgotten. But for whom do
more prayers ascend?--prayers from the secret place, and from those only
who are known to God. Mr. Moffat met those in England who had made his
mission the subject of special prayer for more than twenty years, though
they had no personal knowledge of the missionary. Through the long
fifteen years of no success, of toil and sorrow, these secret ones were
holding up his hands. And who can tell how often his soul may have been
refreshed through their intercessions?...
It is something to be a missionary. The heart is expanded and filled
with generous sympathies; sectarian bigotry is eroded, and the spirit of
reclusion which makes it doubtful if some denominations have yet made up
their minds to meet those who differ with them in heaven loses much of
its fire....
There are many puzzles and entanglements, temptations, trials, and
perplexities, which tend to inure the missionary's virtue. The
difficulties encountered prevent his faith from growing languid. He must
walk by faith, and though the horizon be all dark and lowering, he must
lean on Him whom, having not seen, he loves. The future--a glorious
future--is that for which he labors. It lies before him as we have seen
the lofty coast of Brazil. No chink in the tree-covered rocks appears to
the seaman; but he glides right on. He works toward the coast, and when
he enters the gateway by the sugar-loaf hill, there opens to the view
in the Bay of Rio a scene of luxuriance and beauty unequaled in the
world beside.
The missionary's head will lie low, and others will have entered into
his labors, before his ideal is realized. The Future for which he works
is one which, though sure, has never yet been seen. The earth shall be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. The missionary is a
harbinger of the good time coming. When he preaches the Gospel to a
tribe which has long sat in darkness, the signs of the coming of the Son
of Man are displayed, The glorious Sun of Righteousness is near the
horizon. He is the herald of the dawn, for come He will whose right it
is to reign; and what a prospect appears, when we think of the golden
age which has not been, but must yet come! Messiah has sat on the Hill
of Zion for 1800 years. He has been long expecting that his enemies
shall be made his footstool; and may we not expect, too, and lift up our
heads, seeing the redemption of the world draweth nigh? The bow in the
cloud once spread its majestic arch over the smoke of the fat of lambs
ascending as a sweet-smelling savor before God--a sign of the covenant
of peace--and the flickering light of the Shechinah often intimated the
good-will of Jehovah. But these did not more certainly show the presence
of the Angel of the Covenant than does the shaking among the nations the
presence and energy of God's Holy Spirit; and to be permitted to rank as
a fellow-worker with Him is a mercy of mercies. O Love Divine! how cold
is our love to Thee! True, the missionary of the present day is only a
stepping-stone to the future; but what a privilege he possesses! He is
known to "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of
angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received
up into Glory." Is that not enough?
Who would not be a missionary? His noble enterprise is in exact
accordance with the spirit of the age, and what is called the spirit of
the age is simply the movement of multitudes of minds in the same
direction. They move according to the eternal and all-embracing decrees
of God. The spirit of the age is one of benevolence, and it manifests
itself in numberless ways--ragged schools, baths and wash-houses,
sanitary reform, etc. Hence missionaries do not live before their time.
Their great idea of converting the world to Christ is no chimera: it is
Divine. Christianity will triumph. It is equal to all it has to
perform. It is not mere enthusiasm to imagine a handful of missionaries
capable of converting the millions of India. How often they are cut off
just after they have acquired the language! How often they retire with
broken-down constitutions before effecting anything! How often they drop
burning tears over their own feebleness amid the defections of those
they believed to be converts! Yes! but that small band has the decree of
God on its side. Who has not admired the band of Leonidas at the pass of
Thermopylæ? Three hundred against three million. Japhet, with the decree
of God on his side, only 300 strong, contending for enlargement with
Shem and his 3,000,000. Consider what has been effected during the last
fifty years. There is no vaunting of scouts now. No Indian gentlemen
making themselves merry about the folly of thinking to convert the
natives of India; magnifying the difficulties of caste; and setting our
ministers into brown studies and speech-making in defense of missions.
No mission has yet been an entire failure. We who see such small
segments of the mighty cycles of God's providence often imagine some to
be failures which God does not. Eden was such a failure, The Old World
was a failure under Noah's preaching. Elijah thought it was all up with
Israel. Isaiah said: "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed?" And Jeremiah wished his head were waters, his
eyes a fountain of tears, to weep over one of God's plans for diffusing
his knowledge among the heathen. If we could see a larger arc of the
great providential cycle, we might sometimes rejoice when we weep; but
God giveth not account of any of his matters. We must just trust to his
wisdom. Let us do our duty. He will work out a glorious consummation.
Fifty years ago missions could not lift up their heads. But missions now
are admitted by all to be one of the great facts of the age, and the
sneers about "Exeter Hall" are seen by every one to embody a _risus
sardonicus_. The present posture of affairs is, that benevolence is
popular. God is working out in the human heart his great idea, and all
nations shall see his glory.
Let us think highly of the weapons we have received for the
accomplishment of our work. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but spiritual, and mighty through God to the casting down of
strongholds. They are--Faith in our Leader, and in the presence of his
Holy Spirit; a full, free, unfettered Gospel; the doctrine of the cross
of Christ,--an old story, but containing the mightiest truths ever
uttered--mighty for pulling down the strongholds of sin, and giving
liberty to the captives. The story of Redemption, of which Paul said, "I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," is old, yet in its vigor,
eternally young.
This work requires zeal for God and love for souls. It needs prayer from
the senders and the sent, and firm reliance on Him who alone is the
Author of conversion. Souls cannot be converted or manufactured to
order. Great deeds are wrought in unconsciousness, from constraining
love to Christ; in humbly asking, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? in
the simple feeling, we have done that which was our duty to do. They
effect works, the greatness of which it will remain for posterity to
discern. The greatest works of God in the kingdom of grace, like his
majestic movements in nature, are marked by stillness in the doing of
them, and reveal themselves by their effects. They come up like the sun,
and show themselves by their own light. The kingdom of God cometh not
with observation. Luther simply followed the leadings of the Holy Spirit
in the struggles of his own soul. He wrought out what the inward
impulses of his own breast prompted him to work, and behold, before he
was aware, he was in the midst of the Reformation. So, too, it was with
the Plymouth pilgrims, with their sermons three times a day on board the
_Mayflower._ Without thinking of founding an empire, they obeyed the
sublime teachings of the Spirit, the promptings of duty and the
spiritual life. God working mightily in the human heart is the spring of
all abiding spiritual power; and it is only as men follow out the
sublime promptings of the inward spiritual life, that they do great
things for God.
The movement of not one mind only, but the consentaneous movement of a
multitude of minds in the same direction, constitutes what is called the
spirit of the age. This spirit is neither the law of progress nor blind
development, but God's all-eternal, all-embracing purpose, the doctrine
which recognizes the hand of God in all events, yet leaves all human
action free. When God prepared an age for a new thought, the thought is
thrust into the age as an instrument into a chemical solution--the
crystals cluster round it immediately. If God prepares not, the man has
lived before his time. Huss and Wycliffe were like voices crying in the
wilderness, preparing the way for a brighter future; the time had
not yet come.
Who would not be a missionary? "They that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as
the stars for ever and ever." Is God not preparing the world for
missions which will embrace the whole of Adam's family? The gallant
steamships circumnavigate the globe. Emigration is going on at a rate to
which the most renowned crusades of antiquity bear no proportion. Many
men go to and fro, and knowledge is increased. No great emigration ever
took place in our world without accomplishing one of God's great
designs. The tide of the modern emigration flows toward the West. The
wonderful amalgamation of races will result in something grand. We
believe this, because the world is becoming better, and because God is
working mightily in the human mind. We believe it, because God has been
preparing the world for something glorious. And that something, we
conjecture, will be a fuller development of the missionary idea
and work.
There will yet be a glorious consummation of Christianity. The last
fifty years have accomplished wonders. On the American Continent, what a
wonderful amalgamation of races we have witnessed, how wonderfully they
have been fused into that one American people--type and earnest of a
larger fusion which Christianity will yet accomplish, when, by its
blessed power, all tribes and tongues and races shall become one holy
family. The present popularity of beneficence promises well for the
missionary cause in the future. Men's hearts are undergoing a process of
enlargement, Their sympathies are taking a wider scope. The world is
getting closer, smaller--quite a compact affair. The world for Christ
will yet be realized. "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of
the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
* * * * *
No. II.
TREATMENT OF AFRICAN FEVER.
In July, 1859, when the Expedition to the Zambesi had been there about a
year. Dr. Livingstone drew up and forwarded to Sir James Clark, Bart.,
M.D., a very full report on the treatment of African fever. The report
details at length a large number of cases, the circumstances under which
the attack was experienced, the remedies administered, and their
effects. In order to ward off the disease in the mangrove swamps, which
were justly described as hotbeds of fever, a dose of quinine was
administered daily to each European, amounting to two grains, and taken
in sherry wine. When an attack of the disease occurred, and the stomach
did not refuse the remedies, Dr. Livingstone administered a dose of
calomel with resin of jalap, followed by quinine. These remedies were in
almost all cases successful, and the convalescence of the patient was
wonderfully rapid. The "pills" which Dr. Livingstone often referred to
were composed of resin of jalap, calomel, rhubarb, and quinine. It was
usually observed that active employment kept off fever, and that on high
lands its attacks were much less violent. Where the stomach refused the
remedies a blister was usually the most effectual means of stopping
the sickness.
Experience did not confirm the prophylactic action of quinine; exemption
from attack in unfavorable situations was rather ascribed to active
exercise, good diet, and to absence of damp, exposure to sun, and
excessive exertion. Even while navigating an unhealthy part of the
Shiré, and while, owing to the state of the vessel, the beds were
constantly damp, good health was enjoyed, owing to the regular exercise
and good fare.
In the upper regions of the Shiré, Dr. Livingstone says he and his
companions were exposed in the early hours of the morning to the dew
from the long grass, marching during the day over rough country under
the tropical sun, and then sleeping in the open air; but though they had
discontinued the daily use of quinine they Were perfectly well, as were
also their native attendants. This was one of the considerations that
gave him such confidence in the healthiness of the Shiré highlands.
Two or three years later, in writing to a friend, Dr. Livingstone
thanked him for having sent him a missionary journal, which he greatly
enjoyed--_The News of the Churches and Journal of Missions_. To show the
very unusual pleasure which this Journal gave him, he proposed to send a
communication to the editor, but said he was somewhat afraid to do so,
lest it should meet the fate of many a paper forwarded to editors at an
earlier period of his life. Mustering courage, he did send a letter, and
we find it in the number of the journal for August, 1862. It is
entitled, "A Note that may be useful to Missionaries in Africa," and
consists of a statement of the remedy for fever, and an account of its
operation. He had been led to think of this from seeing in the _News of
the Churches_ for February, 1861, a reference to his remedy in an
account of the death of the Helmores. The proportions of the several
ingredients are given--"for a full-grown man six or eight grains of
resin of jalap, and the same amount of rhubarb, with four grains of
calomel, and four of quinine, made into pills with spirit of cardamoms.
On taking effect, quinine (not the unbleached kind), in four grains or
larger doses is given every two hours or so, till the ears ring, or
deafness ensues; this last is an essential part of the cure."
The last part of the letter is a description of Lake Nyassa, and a
statement of its importance for purposes of civilization and
Christianity.
The _News of the Churches_ was projected in 1854 by the late Rev. Andrew
Cameron, D.D., and the present writer, and conducted by them for a time;
in 1862 it was in the hands of the Rev. Gavin Carlyle, now of Ealing.
* * * * *
No. III.
LETTER TO DR. TIDMAN, AS TO FUTURE OPERATIONS.
QUILIMANE, 23_d May_, 1856.
THE REV. DR. TIDMAN.
DEAR SIR,--Having by the good providence of our Heavenly Father reached
this village on the 20th curt., I was pleased to find a silence of more
than four years broken by your letter of the 24th August, 1855. I found,
also, that H.M.'s brigatine "Dart" had called at this port several times
in order to offer me a passage homeward, but on the last occason in
which this most friendly act was performed, her commander, with an
officer of marines and five seamen, were unfortunately lost on the very
dangerous bar at the mouth of the Quilimane River. This sad event threw
a cold shade over all the joy I might otherwise have experienced on
reaching the Eastern Coast. I felt as if it would have been easier for
me to have died for them than to bear the thought of so many being cut
off from all the joys of life in generously attempting to render me a
service. As there is no regular means of proceeding from this to the
Cape, I remain here in the hope of meeting another cruiser, which the
kindness of Commodore Trotter has led me to expect, in preference to
going by a small Arab or Portuguese trading vessel to some point on the
"overland route to India." And though I may possibly reach you as soon
as a letter, it appears advisable to state in writing my thoughts
respecting one or two very important points in your communication.
Accompanied by many kind expressions of approbation, which I highly
value on account of having emanated from a body of men whose sole object
in undertaking the responsibility and labor of the Direction must have
been a sincere desire to promote the interests of the kingdom of our
Lord among the heathen, I find the intimation that the Directors are
restricted in their power of aiding plans connected only remotely with
the spread of the gospel. And it is added, also, that even though
certain very formidable obstacles should prove surmountable, the
"financial circumstances of the Society are not such as to afford any
ground of hope that it would be, within any definite period, in a
position to enter upon untried, remote, and difficult fields of labor."
If I am not mistaken, these statements imply a resolution on the part of
the gentlemen now in the Direction, to devote the decreasing income of
the Society committed to their charge to parts of the world of easy
access, and in which the missionaries may devote their entire time and
energies to the dissemination of the truths of the gospel with
reasonable hopes of speedy success. This, there can be no doubt, evinces
a sincere desire to perform their duty faithfully to their constituents,
to the heathen, and to our Lord and Master, yet while still retaining
that full conviction of the purity of their motives, which no measure
adopted during the sixteen years of my connection with the Society has
for a moment disturbed, I feel constrained to view "the untried, remote,
and difficult fields," to which I humbly yet firmly believe God has
directed my steps, with a resolution widely different from that which
their words imply. As our aims and purposes will now appear in some
degree divergent--on their part from a sort of paralysis caused by
financial decay, and on mine from the simple continuance of an old
determination to devote my life and my all to the service of Christ, in
whatever way He may lead me in inter-tropical Africa--it seems natural,
while yet without the remotest idea of support from another source, to
give some of the reasons for differing with those with whom I have
hitherto been so happily connected.
It remains vividly on my memory that some twenty years ago, while musing
how I might spend my life so as best to promote the glory of the Lord
Jesus, I came to the conclusion that from the cumulative nature of
gospel influence the outskirts even of the Empire of China presented the
most inviting field for evangelical effort in the world. I was also much
averse to being connected with any Society, having a strong desire to
serve Christ in circumstances which would free my services from all
professional aspect. But the solicitations of friends in whose judgment
I had confidence led to my offers of service to the London Missionary
Society. The "Opium War" was then adduced as a reason why that remote,
difficult, and untried field of labor should stand in abeyance before
the interior of Africa, to which, in opposition to my own judgment, I
was advised to proceed. I did not, however, go with any sort of
reluctance, for I had great respect for the honored men by whom the
advice was given, and unbounded confidence in the special providence of
Him who has said, "Commit thy way unto the Lord, etc. In all thy ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy steps." I was contented with
the way in which I had been led, and happy in the prospect of being made
instrumental in winning some souls to Christ.
The Directors wished me to endeavor to carry the gospel to the tribes
north of the Kuruman. Having remained at that station sufficient time
only to recruit my oxen, I proceeded in the direction indicated, and
while learning the language I visited the Bakhatla, Bakwains,
Bangwaketse, and Bamangwato tribes, in order to select a suitable
locality for a mission, in the hope of succeeding in making a second
Kuruman or central station, which would, by God's blessing, influence a
large circumference. I chose Mabotsa, no one who has seen that country
since has said the choice was injudicious. The late Rev. Dr. Philip
alone was opposed to this plan on account of solicitude for my safety,
"because Mosilikatse was behind the Cashan mountains thirsting for the
blood of the first white man who should fall into his hands. And no man
would in his sober senses build his house on the crater of a volcano."
Having removed to the Bakwains of Sechéle, I spent some of the happiest
years of my life in missionary labor, and was favored in witnessing a
gratifying measure of success in the spread of the knowledge of the
gospel. The good seed was widely sown, and is not lost. It will yet bear
fruit, though I may not live to see it. In the pursuit of my plan I
tried to plant among the tribes around by means of native teachers and
itineracies. We have heard again and again of a "preparatory work going
on" in India, but who ever heard of such in Africa? A village of 600 or
800 may have one, or even two missionaries, with school-masters and
schoolmistresses, and the nearest population, fifty or one hundred miles
off, cannot feel their influence. Believers will not, in many cases, go
beyond the circle of their own friends and acquaintances.
I was happy in having two worthy men of color, to aid me in diffusing a
knowledge of Christ among the Eastern tribes, but the Boers forbade us
to preach unto the Gentiles that they might be saved. My attention was
turned to Sebituane by Sechéle at the very time this happened, but I had
no intention of leaving the Bakwains. Droughts succeeded, and these,
with perpetual threats and annoyances from the Boers, so completely
distracted the mind of the tribe that our operations were almost
suspended. It is well known that food for the mind has but little savor
for starving stomachs. The famine, and the unmistakable determination of
the Boers to enslave my people, at last made me look to the north
seriously. There was no precipitancy. Letters went to and from India
respecting my project before resolving to leave, and I went at last,
after being obliged to send my family to Kuruman in order to be out of
the way of a threatened attack of the Boers. When we reached Lake
'Ngami, about which so much has been said, I immediately asked for
guides to take me to Sebituane, because to form a settlement in which
the gospel might be planted was the great object for which I had come.
Guides were refused, and the Bayeiye were prevented from ferrying me
across the Zouga. I made a raft, but after working in the water for
hours it would not carry me. (I have always been thankful, since I knew
how alligators abound there, that I was not then killed by one.) Next
year affairs were not improved at Kolobeng, and while attempting the
north again fever drove us back. In both that and the following year I
took my family with me in order to obviate the loss of time which
returning for them would occasion. The Boers subsequently, by relieving
me of all my goods, freed me from the labor of returning to Kolobeng
at all.
Of the circumstances attending our arrival at Sebituane's, and the
project of opening up a path to the coast, you are already so fully
aware, from having examined and awarded your approbation, I need
scarcely allude to it. Double the time has been expended to that which I
anticipated, but as it chiefly arose from sickness, the loss of time was
unavoidable. The same cause produced interruptions in preaching the
gospel--as would have been the case had I been indisposed anywhere else.
The foregoing short notices of all the plans which I can bring to my
recollection since my arrival in Africa lead me to the question, which
of the plans it is that the Directors particularize when they say they
are restricted in their power of aiding plans only remotely connected
with the spread of the gospel. It cannot be the last surely, for I had
their express approval before leaving Cape Town, and they yield to none
in admiration of the zeal with which it has been executed. Then which
is it?
As it cannot be meant to apply in the way of want of funds deciding the
suspension of operations which would make the connection remote enough
with the spread of the gospel by us, I am at a loss to understand the
phraseology, and therefore trust that the difficulty may be explained.
The difficulties are mentioned in no captious spirit, though, from being
at a loss as to the precise meaning of the terms, I may appear to be
querulous. I am not conscious of any diminution of the respect and
affection with which I have always addressed you. I am, yours
affectionately, DAVID LIVINGSTON.
No. IV.
LORD CLARENDON'S LETTER TO SEKELETU.
_From_ THE EARL OF CLARENDON, _Principal Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs of Her Majesty, the Queen of Great
Britain, to our esteemed Friend_ SEKELETU, _Chief of the
The Queen our Sovereign and the British Government have learned with
much pleasure from her Majesty's servant, Dr. Livingstone, the kind
manner in which you co-operated with him in his endeavors to find a
path from your country to the sea on the West Coast, and again, when he
was following the course of the river Zambesi from your town to the
Eastern Coast, by furnishing him on each occasion with canoes,
provisions, oxen, and men, free of expense; and we were pleased to hear
that you, your elders and people, are all anxious to have direct
intercourse with the English nation, and to have your country open to
commerce and civilization.
Ours is a great commercial and Christian nation, and we desire to live
in peace with all men. We wish others to sleep soundly as well as
ourselves; and we hate the trade in slaves. We are all the children of
one common Father; and the slave-trade being hateful to Him, we give
you a proof of our desire to promote your prosperity by joining you in
the attempt to open up your country to peaceful commerce. With this
view the Queen sends a small steam-vessel to sail along the river
Zambesi, which you know and agreed to be the best pathway for conveying
merchandise, and for the purpose of exploring which Dr. Livingstone
left you the last time. This is, as all men know, "God's pathway;" and
you will, we trust, do all that you can to keep it a free pathway for
all nations, and let no one be molested when traveling on the river.
We are a manufacturing people, and make all the articles which you see
and hear of as coming from the white men. We purchase cotton and make
it into cloth; and if you will cultivate cotton and other articles, we
are willing to buy them. No matter how much you may produce, our people
will purchase it all. Let it be known among all your people, and among
all the surrounding ¸tribes, that the English are the friends and
promoters of all lawful commerce, but that they are the enemies of the
slave-trade and slave-hunting.
We assure you, your elders and people, of our friendship, and we hope
that the kindly feelings which you entertain toward the English may be
continued between our children's children; and, as we have derived all
our greatness from the Divine religion we received from Heaven, it will
be well if you consider it carefully when any of our people talk to
you about it.
We hope that Her Majesty's servants and people will be able to visit
you from time to time in order to cement our friendship, and to promote
mutual welfare; and, in the meantime, we recommend you to the
protection of the Almighty.
Written at London, the nineteenth day of February, 1858. Your
affectionate friend, CLARENDON.
* * * * *
Letters similar to the above were sent to many of the other chiefs
known to Livingstone.
* * * * *
No. V.
PUBLIC HONORS AWARDED TO DR. LIVINGSTONE.
A complete list of these honors is not easy to construct; the following
may be regarded as embracing the chief, but it does not embrace mere
addresses presented to him, of which there were many:
1850. Royal Geographical Society of London award him the Royal Donation
of 25 guineas, placed by her Majesty at the disposal of the Council
(Silver Chronometer).
1854. French Geographical Society award a Silver Medal.
1854. University of Glasgow confer degree of LL.D.
1855. Royal Geographical Society of London award Patron's Gold Medal.
1857. French Geographical Society award annual prize for the most
important geographical discovery.
1857. Freedom of city of London, in box of value of fifty guineas, As a
testimonial in recognition of his zealous and ¸persevering exertions in
the important discoveries he has made in Africa, by which geographical,
geological, and their kindred sciences have been advanced; facts
ascertained that may extend the trade and commerce of this country, and
hereafter secure to the native tribes of the vast African continent the
blessings of knowledge and civilization.
1857. Freedom of city of Glasgow, presented in testimony of admiration
of his undaunted intrepidity and fortitude: amid difficulties,
privations, and dangers, during a period of many years, while
traversing an extensive region in the interior of Africa, hitherto
unexplored by Europeans, and of appreciation of the importance of his
services, extending to the fostering of commerce, the advancement of
civilization, and the diffusion of Christianity among heathen nations.
1857. Freedom of city of Edinburgh, of Dundee, and many other towns.
1857. Corresponding Member of American Geographical and Statistical
Society, New York.
1857. Corresponding Member of Royal Geographical Society of London.
1857. Corresponding Member of Geographical Society of Paris.
1857. Corresponding Member of the K.K. Geographical Society of Vienna.
1857. The Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow "elect that
worthy, eminent, and learned Surgeon and Naturalist, David Livingstone,
LL.D., to be an Honorary Fellow,"
1857. Medal awarded by the Universal Society for the Encouragement of
Arts and Industry.
1857. University of Oxford confer degree of D.C.L.
1857. Elected F.R.S.
1858. Appointed Commander of Zambesi Expedition and her Majesty's
Consul at Tette, Quilimane, and Senna.
1872. Gold Medal awarded by Italian Geographical Society.
1874. A memoir of Livingstone having been read by the Secretary at a
meeting of the Russian Geographical Society cordially recognizing his
merit, the whole assembly--a very large one--by rising, paid a last
tribute of respect to his memory.--_Lancet_, 7th March, 1874.
Any omissions in this list notified to the author will be supplied in
future editions.
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