PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Personal Life of David Livingstone
Blaikie, William Garden · 185,849 words · 259 reading sections
A.D. 1864.
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 si…
719 wordsSECTION 182A.D. 1864.
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 t…
835 wordsSECTION 183A.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 friga…
914 wordsSECTION 184A.D. 1864-65.
"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 (S…
676 wordsSECTION 185A.D. 1864-65.
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.…
702 wordsSECTION 186A.D. 1864-65.
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, "Se…
948 wordsSECTION 187A.D. 1864-65.
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 …
655 wordsSECTION 188"Rod'Ck I. Murchison."
"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 geograph…
685 wordsSECTION 189"Rod'Ck I. Murchison."
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…
654 wordsSECTION 190"Rod'Ck I. Murchison."
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 h…
705 wordsSECTION 191"Rod'Ck I. Murchison."
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 o…
689 wordsSECTION 192"Rod'Ck I. Murchison."
"_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 re…
669 wordsSECTION 193A.D. 1865-1866.
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 great…
660 wordsSECTION 194A.D. 1865-1866.
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 fulfi…
556 wordsSECTION 195To 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 Gover…
722 wordsSECTION 196To Agnes Livingstone.
[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…
943 wordsSECTION 197To Agnes Livingstone.
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…
792 wordsSECTION 198To Agnes Livingstone.
"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. …
663 wordsSECTION 199To Agnes Livingstone.
"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 upsi…
525 wordsSECTION 200A.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--Dis…
723 wordsSECTION 201A.D. 1866-1869.
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 re…
845 wordsSECTION 202A.D. 1866-1869.
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 i…
781 wordsSECTION 203A.D. 1866-1869.
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…
901 wordsSECTION 204A.D. 1866-1869.
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 Patric…
847 wordsSECTION 205A.D. 1866-1869.
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; bu…
705 wordsSECTION 206A.D. 1866-1869.
"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…
813 wordsSECTION 207A.D. 1866-1869.
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 hau…
721 wordsSECTION 208A.D. 1866-1869.
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…
696 wordsSECTION 209A.D. 1866-1869.
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 strife…
372 wordsSECTION 210A.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 retu…
696 wordsSECTION 211A.D. 1869-1871.
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 wi…
931 wordsSECTION 212A.D. 1869-1871.
"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 frightene…
758 wordsSECTION 213A.D. 1869-1871.
"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…
716 wordsSECTION 214"David Livingstone."
"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, Another letter is addressed to Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann, September, 1869. He enters at considerable length into his r…
823 wordsSECTION 215"David Livingstone."
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, proc…
788 wordsSECTION 216"David Livingstone."
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…
819 wordsSECTION 217"David Livingstone."
[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…
876 wordsSECTION 218"David Livingstone."
"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 …
765 wordsSECTION 219"David Livingstone."
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 Liv…
725 wordsSECTION 220"David Livingstone."
"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 ca…
696 wordsSECTION 221"David Livingstone."
[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 maraud…
819 wordsSECTION 222"David Livingstone."
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 tribut…
651 wordsSECTION 223"David Livingstone."
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 Ch…
323 wordsSECTION 224A.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--Sta…
824 wordsSECTION 225A.D. 1871-1872.
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 Living…
810 wordsSECTION 226A.D. 1871-1872.
[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…
664 wordsSECTION 227A.D. 1871-1872.
"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 convi…
774 wordsSECTION 228A.D. 1871-1872.
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 Livi…
708 wordsSECTION 229A.D. 1871-1872.
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 …
828 wordsSECTION 230A.D. 1871-1872.
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…
763 wordsSECTION 231A.D. 1872-73.
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 cha…
688 wordsSECTION 232A.D. 1872-73.
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 Li…
688 wordsSECTION 233A.D. 1872-73.
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 enf…
701 wordsSECTION 234A.D. 1872-73.
[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 di…
681 wordsSECTION 235A.D. 1872-73.
"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…
425 wordsSECTION 236"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…
865 wordsSECTION 237"Lake Bangweolo, South Central Africa.
"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 we…
671 wordsSECTION 238"Lake Bangweolo, South Central Africa.
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 aft…
708 wordsSECTION 239"Lake Bangweolo, South Central Africa.
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 eve…
652 wordsSECTION 240"Lake Bangweolo, South Central Africa.
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 w…
671 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.