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 theTimes, 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].
[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 hisMissionary Travelsof 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].
[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 theMissionary 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 onviâMarseilles, 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.
A.D. 1856-1857.
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 ofMissionary 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 comeFrom 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'erWith 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."
"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:
[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, December4, 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 alltoo 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--theLoanda 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 thescientificenthusiasm 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]."
[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 fulfilledby 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 theMissionary Travelsis 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 theEdinburgh 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."