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.