Dr David Livingstone - Scottish Missionary and explorer
David Livingstone (1813-1873), African missionary
and explorer, was born at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, [Scotland] on 19 March 1813.
His great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden fighting for the Stuarts.
His grandfather was a small farmer at Ulva in the Hebrides, who, finding
his farm insufficient to support a numerous family, moved in 1792 to Blantyre
in Lanarkshire, about seven miles from Glasgow, where he found employment
in the cotton factory of H. Monteith & Co. His sons became clerks in
the same factory, but, with the exception of Neil, all entered either the
army or navy during the war with France. Neil, after serving an apprenticeship
to David Hunter, a tailor, married in 1810 his daughter Agnes, eventually
became a small tea-dealer, and spent his life at Blantyre and Hamilton. He
was a religious man, and for the last twenty years of his life held the office
of deacon of an independent church at Hamilton. He had five sons and two
daughters, and set them a consistent example of piety, while the mother,
a delicate woman, with a flow of good spirits, did her best to make the two
ends meet.
David was Neil Livingstone's second son, and at the age of ten was sent to
the cotton-factory as a "piecer." With his first earnings be purchased Ruddiman's
"Rudiments of Latin," and for some years studied at an evening school, and
at home until late at night, although he had to be at the factory at six
o'clock in the morning. He thus mastered Virgil and Horace, and read all
that came in his way. He contrived to read in the factory by placing his
book on the spinning-jenny so that he could catch sentences as he passed
at his work. He studied botany, zoology, and geology, and spent his few holidays
in scouring the country with his brothers in search of scientific specimens.
Although Neil Livingstone duly instructed his children in the doctrines of
Christianity, David positively disliked religious reading until he met with
Dick's "Philosophy of Religion" and "Philosophy of a Future State," and it
was not until his twentieth year that he became conscious of strong religious
convictions. As he himself relates, "In the glow of love which Christianity
inspires I soon resolved to devote my life to the alleviation of human misery."
An appeal by Charles Gutzlaff, the medical missionary to China, drew his
thoughts to that country, and he determined to obtain a medical education
to qualify himself for work there.
At nineteen he had become a cotton-spinner, and his wages
were large enough to support him while attending the medical class in Anderson
College, the Greek class in Glasgow University in winter, and the divinity
lectures of Dr. Wardlaw in summer. While attending the university session
of 1836-7 he, in company with Lyon (now Lord) Playfair and the brothers James
and William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), was instructed in the use of tools
by Mr. James Young, assistant to the professor of chemistry. In the course
of his second session at college Livingstone offered his services to the
London Missionary Society, which he selected on account of its unsectarian
character. In September 1838 he went to London, passed a preliminary examination,
and was sent with Joseph Moore (afterwards missionary at Tahiti, and a friend
and correspondent of Livingstone) to the Rev. Richard Cecil at Chipping Ongar
in Essex for some months' probation. On its completion he returned to London
and devoted himself to medical and scientific study. He placed himself under
the guidance of J. Risdon Bennett (afterwards president of the Royal College
of Physicians), and walked the hospitals. While pursuing his studies in London
he acquired the friendship of Professor Owen and George Wilson.
The opium war prevented Livingstone from going to China, and meeting
Dr. Robert Moffat, the South African missionary,
in London, he was led to select that country for his labours. He was admitted
a licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow University
in the beginning of November 1840; on 20 Nov. he was ordained a missionary
in Albion Chapel, London; and on 8 Dec. he embarked in the ship George, under
Captain Donaldson, for the Cape of Good Hope. He put in at Rio de Janeiro,
where he had his only glimpse of the American continent. The captain instructed
him in the use of the quadrant and in taking lunar observations. After a
detention of a month at Cape Town he proceeded to Algoa Bay, and landed in
Port Elizabeth in May. On 31 July 1841 he arrived by wagon at Kuruman, in
the Bechuana country, the most northerly station of the society in South
Africa, and the usual residence of Dr. Moffat, who was still absent in England;
and in accordance with his instructions, he turned his attention to the formation
of a new station further north. Before the end of the year he made a journey
of seven hundred miles with a brother-missionary, which confirmed his opinion
as to the necessity of native labour in attempting to Christianize so vast
a field, and which resulted in a visit to the chief Setshele at Shokwane
and the selection of a station 250 miles north of Kuruman as the most suitable
spot for fresh operations.
On 10 Feb. 1842 Livingstone set out on a second journey
into the interior, and went to Litubaruba, now Molepolole, in Bechuanaland.
He secluded himself from Europeans, in order to acquire a knowledge of the
native languages and to gain an insight into the life and habits of the Ba-kwena.
He took with him two native members of the Kuruman church, and two other
natives to look after the wagon. He established friendly relations with several
tribes, mastered one dialect, and commenced learning another. He investigated
the geology, botany, and natural history of the country he traversed, which
included part of the Kalahari desert, and returned in June to Kuruman. Here
he remained for some months, journeying among the neighbouring tribes and
taking part in the routine work of the station, such as preaching, printing,
prescribing for the sick, and building a chapel. In February 1843 he again
set out on a journey of four hundred miles among the tribes he had previously
visited (Ba-katla, Ba-kwena, and others), journeying without knowing it to
within a short distance of Lake Ngami, and returning in June to Kuruman.
In accordance with directions at length received from the society at home
to found a new settlement in the interior, Livingstone set out in August
1843 with a brother-missionary and three English sportsmen, one of whom,
Captain (afterwards Sir) Thomas Steele, proved a very constant friend. After
a fortnight's journey they arrived at Mabotsa in the Bakatla country, which
Livingstone had previously selected for the station, and where he had placed
a native agent named Mebalwe. A large hut was erected and the new station
started as a base for operations in the interior. Unfortunately, the "charming
valley" Livingstone had selected for his new home was infested by lions;
they attacked the herds in open day, and leaped into the cattle-pens by night.
Livingstone encouraged the faint-hearted people to destroy them, and accompanied
them in a lion-hunt. Having wounded a lion within thirty yards, it sprang
upon him and brought him to the ground, crushing the bone of his left shoulder
before it was despatched. For the rest of his life the use of his left arm
was restricted in consequence, and the wound caused him occasional suffering.
In
1844 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Dr. Moffat (image right), and took
her to Mabotsa. She had been born and brought up in the country, was an expert
in all household duties, and of cultured tastes. At Mabotsa she took charge
of the infant school, but owing to a disagreement with the missionary who
had accompanied them, Livingstone in 1846 gave up the house he had built,
the garden he had made, and the station he had organised with much trouble
and expense, and moved to Tshonuane, forty miles further north, and the
headquarters of the Bechuana chief, Setshele, who showed an intelligent interest
in Christianity. From Tshonuane Livingstone made a long journey eastwards
to the Kashane Mountains, or Magaliesberg, through the heart of what is now
the Transvaal State. On his return to Tshonuane his eldest son, Robert, was
born. When Livingstone had finished the erection of a school, and had organised
systematic instruction under native teachers, he again travelled east,
accompanied by his wife and infant son. It was here that the famous white
hunter R Gordon Cumming met Dr Livingstone.
On his return in 1847, drought at Tshonuane compelled him again to change
his station, and he induced Setshele and his Ba-kwenas to accompany him forty
miles to the westward to the river Kolobeñ, where he taught them to
irrigate their gardens by runnels from the river. For the third time he built
a house for himself. A native smith had taught him to weld iron, Dr. Moffat
had taught him carpentry and gardening, and he had become handy at most
mechanical employments. His wife made candles, soap, and clothes, and efficiently
performed all domestic work within doors.
One of the difficulties of the mission was the proximity of the Boers of
the Cushan Mountains. These men had fled from English law, and resenting
the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, had moved to distant localities,
where they could enslave the natives without molestation. Livingstone had,
twice visited the Boers, and had tried to plant native teachers in their
territory; but Heindrick Potgeiter, the Boer leader, threatened to attack
any tribe which received a native teacher. More than ever impressed with
the necessity for native agents to reach such large heathen masses, Livingstone
determined that, his primary duty was to explore and open out, the country,
teaching as he went, but not settling down. His sojourn at Kolobeñ
had been a busy one. He made a grammar of the Sichuana language, and was
incessantly teaching. In after-life he looked back with pleasure to the time
spent among the Ba-kwenas, and mentioned that his only regret was that, while
spending all his energy on the heathen, he had not devoted an hour each day
to play with his children.
Early in 1849 Livingstone prepared to cross the desert in search of Lake
Ngami. He communicated his intention to Captain Steele, who made it known
to two sportsmen, Messrs. Oswell and Murray. These gentlemen on 1 June 1849
left Kolobeñ with Livingstone, and travelled along the north-east
border of the great Kalahari desert, to cross which many unsuccessful attempts
had been made; and even the Griquas had found the absolute want of water
an insuperable difficulty. On 4 July Livingstone and his party came to the
beautiful river Zuga, running N.E. On 1 Aug. they reached the north-east
end of Lake Ngami, and for the first time this fine sheet of water, too broad
to see across, was viewed by Europeans. Livingstone wished to visit Sebituane,
the great chief of the Makololo, who lived some two hundred miles beyond
the lake; but Letshulatebe, chief of the lake tribe of the Bamangwato, would
give him no assistance and the season being well advanced the party started
south again, Mr. 0swell volunteering to go to the Cape and bring up a boat.
The discovery of the river and lake was communicated by Livingstone to the
London Missionary Society, and to his friend Captain Steele, and extracts
from his letters were forwarded to the Royal Geographical Society, who in
1849 voted Livingstone twenty-five guineas "for his successful journey 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," while
the president ascribed the success of Livingstone to the influence he had
acquired over the natives as a missionary.
Livingstone remained at Kolobeñ until April 1850, when, with his wife
and three children, he again started for the north to visit Sebituane. He
took the more eastern route, through the Bamangwato and by Letloche, the
chief Setshele accompanying him to the Zuga. He travelled along the woody
northern bank of that river to its confluence with the Tamunakle, where the
activity of the dangerous tsetse fly compelled him reluctantly to recross
the Zuga. Here he learnt that a party of Englishmen, who had come to the
lake in search of ivory, were ill with fever, and he hastily travelled some
sixty miles to their succour. Alfred Ryder, a young artist, died before he
arrived, but the others recovered under Livingstone's nursing. When Livingstone
was ready to resume his journey, two of his children and three of his servants
were seized with fever. He therefore abandoned his journey for that year
and returned to Kolobeñ, where a fourth child was born, but only lived
a few weeks. Mrs. Livingstone being seriously ill, they went to stay with
Dr. Moffat at Kuruman to recruit her health.
Accompanied by his wife and children and Mr. Oswell, to whose pecuniary
assistance he was greatly indebted, Livingstone in April 1851 succeeded in
visiting Sebituane, who received him with kindness, but a fortnight later
died of inflammation of the lungs. The chieftainship devolved upon his daughter,
Ma-mochisane, who lived twelve days' march to the north, at Na-liele. She
gave Livingstone and Oswell leave to visit any part of her territory, and
they made an expedition 130 miles to the north-east through Linyanti. They
travelled by a more easterly route than they had hitherto tried, and crossed
the network of rivers, streams, and marshes called Tshobe. At the end of
June they were rewarded by the important discovery of the Zambesi at Sesheke,
in the centre of the continent. Setting out on 13 Aug., the party proceeded
slowly homeward. On 15 Sept. Livingstone's son, William Oswell, was born
on the journey, while his son Thomas was down with fever. They reached
Kolobeñ safely in October.
As there was no hope that the Boers would allow the instruction of the natives
to proceed peaceably, a strong desire moved Livingstone to explore to the
north; so in the spring of 1852, after a short stay with the Moffats at Kuruman,
he took his family to Cape Town, and on 23 April, assisted by Oswell's
liberality, he sent them to England. Livingstone's uvula had long been
troublesome, and he seized this opportunity to have it excised. While staying
at Cape Town, among other occupations, he put himself under the instruction
of the astronomer-royal, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Maclear, who became
one of his most esteemed friends, and Livingstone named after him Cape Maclear,
the most striking promontory on Lake Nyasa. Under Maclear's instructions
he perfected himself in astronomical observations, and acquired in this respect
a skill and accuracy which few subsequent travellers have possessed in a
like degree.
After procuring stores, he left Cape Town on 8 June 1852, and arrived at
Kuruman about the end of August. Here a broken wheel detained him for a
fortnight, and this detention probably saved his life, for the Boers had
attacked the Ba-kwena at Kolobeñ, sacked the place, and, gutting
Livingstone's house, destroyed his personal property and manuscripts. He
made a formal representation of his losses both to the Cape and the home
authorities, but never received any compensation. The country was so unsettled
that it was not until 20 Nov. that he was able to secure servants, and in
company with George Fleming, a trader, to leave Kuruman. He skirted the Kalahari
desert, giving the Boers a wide berth. On 31 Dec. he reached Litubaruba,
and on 23 May 1853 arrived at Linyanti, the capital of the Makololo. Mamochisane
had made over the chieftainship to her brother, Sekeletu, who received them
most cordially. Here Livingstone had his first attack of fever, and he spent
a month in preparing for his exploration northwards, while at the same time
he assisted Fleming to establish himself as a trader.
Image right: Contemporary photo of Livingstone in the Balson Holdings Family Trust Collection.
At the end of June 1853, accompanied by Sekeletu, Livingstone proceeded to
Sesheke, where a fleet of thirty-three canoes and 160 men was collected to
ascend the Zambesi as far as the confluence of the Kabompo and the Liba.
But in all this district the tsetse fly prevailed. They ascended the Liba
to the confluence of the Loeti, and returned to Linyanti in September, having
failed to discover a suitable and healthy site for a station. Livingstone
now determined to open a path to the west coast. He sent back his Kuruman
servants, who had had frequent relapses of fever, and induced Sekeletu to
assist him with twenty-seven men and canoes, with the hope of opening up
trade between the Makololo and the Portuguese colonies. Having committed
his wagon and goods to the care of Sekeletu, he started on 11 Nov. 1853,
with a very modest outfit, for his journey to the west coast. Although
Livingstone travelled with so little baggage, he was always careful to maintain
personal neatness and cleanliness, and considered that any other appearance
lowered a man in the eyes of savages. He descended the Tshobe, and then turned
round and ascended the Liambai, or main Zambesi. At Libonta, the last village
of the Makololo kingdom, he stayed to collect fat and butter for presents
further on. From Libonta he journeyed on to the confluence of the Liba and
Kabompo. He ascended the Liba for some distance, but in passing through the
Lunda country he had some difficulty in averting a hostile reception; with
his usual tact and patience, however, he explained away the natives'
apprehensions and won their friendship. Queen Nyamoana objected to his proceeding
further up the Liba, and despatched him on the back of a riding-ox to the
supreme chief, Shinte, and sent her daughter, Manenko, as guide and protectress.
He arrived at the town of Shinte on 16 Jan. 1854, and found himself unmistakably
in west central Africa, denoted by banana groves, great trees, straight streets,
and rectangular houses. Shinte gave him a royal reception. The heavy rains
and the drunkenness of the people delayed Livingstone for ten days, and then
he travelled in a northerly direction parallel to the Liba, the main stream
of which he crossed near its confluence with the Lukalueje affluent, which,
with a number of little tributary streams, flows through the great Luvale
flat and renders it a vast sodden marsh. In the middle of this swampy prairie
is the little Lake Dilolo, about twenty-eight miles in extent, near which
is the straggling village of Katema. Here Livingstone and several of his
party were ill with fever, and had to stay some days. Obtaining guides from
Katema, he pursued a north-west course across the Kifumaji and Dilolo flats
to the banks of the Kasai, one of the great affluents of the Congo. He discovered
that the swampy plain he had crossed was the watershed between the Congo
and the Zambesi, and described the Kasai as a beautiful river resembling
the Clyde. He crossed the Kasai, and going due west entered the extensive
country of Kioko. The Va-Kioko were an ill-conditioned people, who put many
obstacles in Livingstone's way. The party were now in want of food, and
Livingstone had to draw on his stock of beads to purchase meal and manioc.
They were in a country where no animal food could be obtained, and their
guide rejoiced in catching a mole and two mice for his supper. From this
time their difficulties increased. Hitherto, whatever had been the physical
impediments to their progress, they had been generally cordially received
and supplied with food. Now everything had to be paid for; the stock of beads
was small, and beads were not the current means of exchange. Tolls were demanded,
and Livingstone had to part with some of his clothes, and his men with their
ornaments. Moreover, Livingstone suffered incessantly from attacks of fever,
brought on by crossing streams and daily getting wet up to the waist. All
these difficulties began to have a bad effect. The morale of Livingstone's
followers suffered, and a mutiny was only repressed by his firm and vigorous
action. On 4 March they reached the territory of the Chiboque, and were only
saved from collision with the chief by Livingstone's suavity and firmness.
They found the natives to the westward familiar with the visits of slave-dealers,
and Livingstone struck away to the north north-east, hoping to find at a
point further north an exit to the Portuguese settlement of Kasanji. They
crossed many swollen streams, and spent Sunday, 26 March, on the banks of
the Quilo, where the scenery was fine; but fever prevented its enjoyment.
They now met many parties of native traders, but had nothing to barter with
them, and, depressed by sickness and want of food and clothing, Livingstone
arrived at the Quango on 3 April "glad to cower under the shelter of my blanket,
thankful to God for His goodness in bringing us thus far without the loss
of one of the party." Here a Portuguese sergeant of militia, Cypriano de
Abreu, in charge of a detachment, entertained them, and supplied them with
meal to carry them to Kasanji, where they arrived on 13 April. They were
hospitably treated by Captain Neves, who sent a black militia corporal to
escort them for the three hundred miles remaining of their journey to Loanda.
At Kasanji Livingstone received every kindness from the Portuguese. "May
God remember them," he writes, "in their day of need!" They left Kasanji
on 21 April, and were hospitably received at the different stations on the
way to the coast; but the journey was rough, and Livingstone was ill with
dysentery, and on reaching the highlands of Golungo-Alto he rested a few
days to recover his strength. On 21 May he started on his descent to the
coast, and arrived in Loanda on 31 May 1854, where he was hospitably welcomed
by Mr. Gabriel, the English commissioner for the suppression of the slave-trade
and consul for Angola; by the Bishop of Angola, who was at the time
acting-governor-general and by the leading Portuguese of the place.
Video - Livingstone's inspired life as a missionary
The captains of H.M.'s ships Pluto, Philomel and Polyphemus, coming shortly
after into port, offered to take Livingstone either to St. Helena or home;
but he would not leave his Makololo followers to return without his assistance,
now that he knew the difficulties of the journey and the hostilities of the
tribes on the Portuguese frontier. He suffered much from dysentery. It was
not until 20 Sept. that he started on his return journey, well supplied with
stores, and with the good wishes of the officials. He passed round by sea
to the mouth of the river Bengo, and ascending the river arrived at Kalung-wembo
on the 28th, and made a detour to visit the town of Massango and the country
at the confluence of the rivers Lucalla and Coanza. On returning to Golungo-Alto
he visited the remains of the old jesuit settlements, and wrote in terms
of intelligent approbation of the work of the jesuits. Several of his men
were here laid up with fever, and it was not until the end of November that
Livingstone was able to resume his journey, making another detour to visit
the famous rocks of Pungo Andongo. Soon after his arrival he received news
of the total loss off Madeira of the mail steamer Forerunner, by which he
had sent off despatches and maps describing his journey from Cape Town to
Loanda. He stayed for about a fortnight at Pungo Andongo with Colonel Manoel
Antonio Pires, a wealthy Portuguese merchant and farmer, and set doggedly
to work to write out a fresh description from his notes and from memory,
and sent it home before proceeding further inland. The narrative of this
journey excited much interest at home, and the Royal Geographical Society,
on the motion of Sir Roderick Murchison, awarded Livingstone its gold medal.
On 1 Jan. 1855 Livingstone left Pungo Andongo, and reached Kasanji in a fortnight
and the Quango on the 28th, and crossing that stream passed without difficulty
through the country of the previously hostile Bashinje. As he was about to
enter the Kioko country the heavy rains and the swampy condition of the land
brought on a severe attack of rheumatic fever. Fortunately, Senhor Pascoal,
a half-caste Portuguese, arrived in his camp when he was at the worst, and
by the application of leeches saved his life. When convalescent and moving
on to join Pascoal, who had preceded him to procure food, Livingstone's party
were attacked from behind by quarrelsome natives. Livingstone got off his
riding-ox, and in spite of his weak health presented a six-barrelled revolver
at the chief's stomach. This prompt action at once converted him to a friend.
Livingstone and Pascoal travelled together through the gloomy forests of
Kioko and southern Lunda as far as Kabango, where they parted company in
June. Livingstone collected considerable information about the Kasai and
the rivers joining it, which later knowledge has shown to be singularly correct.
Livingstone and his Makololo were received with rejoicing by their old friend
Katema near Lake Dilolo, and by Shinte further south. Everywhere they were
greeted with affection by the Ba-lunda people of the Upper Liba; but
unfortunately, on returning to the Zambesi Valley they had returned to the
tsetse fly, and Livingstone lost his riding-ox "Sinbad," which had carried
him all the way from the Barotse country to Angola and back again. When the
party reached the town of Libonta on 27 July, and were back in the Makololo
country, they were received with extravagant demonstrations of joy, and their
progress down the Barotse Valley was a continuous triumph. On his arrival
at Sesheke letters informed him that Sir R. Murchison had already formulated
the same theory of the dish-like contour of the African continent as Livingstone
had arrived at independently from his own observations. On arrival at Linyanti
in September, Livingstone found the wagon and stores he had left there with
Sekeletu in November 1853 perfectly safe. A meeting of the Makololo people
was called to receive Livingstone's report and the presents he had brought
from Loanda, and these and the experience of his followers produced so good
an impression that many Makololo volunteered to accompany him to the East
Coast, whither he was now bound.
On 3 Nov. 1855 Livingstone left Linyanti, accompanied by Sekeletu and two
hundred Makololo. The chief supplied him with twelve oxen, a number of hoes
and other trade goods, and plenty of butter and honey. They arrived at Sesheke
on the 13th, and Livingstone, with some of the party, sailed down the Zambesi,
while the rest drove the cattle along the banks. In following the course
of the Zambesi Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls, where a water-channel
a mile wide is suddenly contracted to thirty yards, with a drop of 320 feet,
and continues for some thirty miles the bed of a roaring torrent. On 20 Nov.
Sekeletu bade farewell to Livingstone at the falls, leaving him a company
of 114 men to escort him to the coast. Passing through the Batoka country
and the southern borders of the land inhabited by the Bashukulombwe, he managed
with his usual tact to appease the suspicions of these people, who had not
seen a white man before. On 14 Jan. 1856 he reached the confluence of the
Loangwa and the Zambesi, and arrived at Zumbo next day. He reached Tete on
3 March, having nearly got into difficulties with a powerful chief called
Katolosa, whom he bought off with some ivory tusks. Major Tito Sicard, the
Portuguese commandant of Tete, showed Livingstone every attention, and did
everything in his power to restore his health, which had been much injured
by his exhausting journey. He spent, sometime resting at Tete, and arranged
to leave his Makololo followers there with Major Sicard while he paid a visit
to England. He left Tete on 22 April, and journeying down the Zambesi as
far as the Mazaro, a little below the African Lakes Company's modern station
at Vicente, he crossed overland to the Kwa-Kwa river, and descended the stream
to Quilimane, which he reached on 22 May 1856, very nearly four years after
he quitted Cape Town for the Zambesi. He had been three years without hearing
from his family. H.M.S. Frolic had called at Quilimane for him the previous
November, and had left wine and quinine for him. But Livingstone's pleasure
at reaching the coast was sadly marred by learning that Commander Maclure,
Lieutenant Woodruffe, and five men of H.M.S. Dart had been lost on the bar
of the river in coming to make inquiries for him. He had to remain at Quilimane,
which is very unhealthy, for six weeks, when H.M.S. Frolic again arrived,
and took him and his best Makololo headman, Sekwebu, to Mauritius. Sekwebu,
however, was so unbalanced by the strangeness of life at sea that he went
mad and drowned himself at Mauritius.
After some stay at Mauritius Livingstone came home by way of the Red Sea,
arriving in London on 12 Dec. His eminent achievements were awarded fitting
recognition. On 15 Dec. there was a special meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society to welcome him, with Sir Roderick Murchison in the chair. Both Captain
Steele and Mr. Oswell were present, and the gold medal that had been awarded
to him was presented. Meeting succeeded meeting. The London Missionary Society
received him, with Lord Shaftesbury in the chair, and there was a public
demonstration at the Mansion House. He received the freedom both of the city
of London and of the town of Hamilton. The prince consort granted him an
interview, and he received testimonials and addresses from many public bodies.
A sum of 2,000£ was raised by public subscription in Glasgow, and presented
to him in the autumn. In Dublin he was feted at a meeting of the British
Association, and in Manchester at the Chamber of Commerce. Oxford conferred
on him the degree of D.C.L., Glasgow made him a LL.D., and the Royal Society
made him a fellow. At Cambridge he received a warm reception, and delivered
a lecture which inaugurated the Universities' Mission to Central Africa.
In November 1857 he published his missionary travels, a book which thoroughly
reflects the man and is delightful reading. A second edition was called for
before the first of twelve thousand copies was issued, and the generous conduct
of John Murray, the publisher, made the work a small fortune for Livingstone,
who spent most of the money on exploration.
Livingstone gently severed his connection with the London Missionary Society
in the autumn of 1857; but although the society realised that his work in
future would be on a larger scale than could be covered by their means and
in spite of Livingstone's protestations that he remained a missionary, there
was much hostile criticism from narrow-minded people. In February 1858
Livingstone was appointed H.M. consul at Quilimane for the East Coast of
Africa to the south of the dominions of Zanzibar, and for the independent
districts in the interior, as well as commander of an expedition to explore
Eastern and Central Africa. A paddle-steamer of light draught was procured
for the Zambesi, and was called the Ma-Robert, the name given to Mrs. Livingstone
by the African natives after -- according to their custom -- her firstborn
son. The staff of the expedition consisted of Commander Bedingfield, R.N.;
Dr. (now Sir John) Kirk, physician and naturalist; Mr. Richard Thornton,
surveyor; Mr. George Rae, engineer; and Livingstone's brother Charles as
secretary. Lord Clarendon, the foreign minister, threw himself heart and
soul into the preparations for the expedition, and Livingstone was received
by the queen before leaving, and was entertained by 350 friends at dinner
at the Freemasons' Tavern. Livingstone left Liverpool with his party in H.M.S.
Pearl on 10 March 1858. Mrs. Livingstone and her youngest child accompanied
them, but were left at the Cape with the Moffats, who had come down to meet
them. Livingstone arrived off the Zambesi delta on 15 May. Inside the Luawe
bar the sections of the steam-launch Ma-Robert were put together, and the
Pearl departed, carrying in her Commander Bedingfield, who had resigned owing
to a disagreement with Livingstone in connection with landing stores on
Expedition Island. Livingstone consequently had to take charge of the Ma-Robert
as well as of the expedition. The propriety of his conduct in the matter
was established to the satisfaction of the admiralty and of Lord Clarendon.
The expedition reached Tete on 8 Sept., and Livingstone received an enthusiastic
welcome from the Makololo. From Tete three visits were paid to the Kebra-basa
rapids, which were found to be an insuperable bar to the continuous navigation
of the Zambesi at all seasons of the year. The Ma-Robert turned out a failure,
and was nicknamed the "Asthmatic," and an application was made to the government
for a more suitable vessel. Pending her arrival Livingstone determined to
explore the Shire river, and search for the great lake reputed to be at its
source. The first trip up the Shire was made early in 1859, and after two
hundred miles of navigation Livingstone and Kirk found themselves effectually
stopped by impassable rapids and cataracts and by hostile natives. Livingstone
named the cataracts after his friend Sir Roderick Murchison, and returned
to Tete. In March Livingstone and Kirk again started for the Shire and, leaving
the steamer near Katunga, proceeded on foot. The journey resulted in the
discovery of Lake Shirwa, a salt lake to the east of the Shire highlands.
They returned in the Ma-Robert to Tete on 3 June. In the middle of August
another start was made up the Shire river; they landed as before, and with
thirty-six Makololo porters and two native guides ascended the Shire highlands,
passed round by Mount Zomba and Lake Shirwa, and then rejoined the Shire
river, the left bank of which they followed till they came to the small lake
Pamalombwe, and arrived on 16 Sept. 1859 on the southern shores of Lake Nyasa,
in that south-eastern gulf whence flows the river Shire. David and Charles
Livingstone, John Kirk and Edward Rae, were the first white men to gaze on
this magnificent water. They did not remain long, as they were anxious about
the men left in the steamer, and, hurrying back, reached it on 6 Oct. Livingstone
took the boat down to the Kongoni mouth, where it had again to be beached
for repairs, and after sending Mr. Rae home to advise the admiralty in the
construction of the new vessel, himself returned to Tete. On 15 May 1860
he started up the Zambesi to the Makololo country with his brother Charles
and Dr. Kirk. Nothing of note occurred on this journey except that a more,
thorough examination was made of the Victoria Falls, and they arrived at
Sesheke on 18 Aug. Here they found Sekeletu ill with leprosy, and Livingstone
and Kirk were able to give him some relief. Livingstone left Sesheke on 17
Sept. on their return journey, which was made mainly by water in canoes bought
from the Batoka. They passed the Kariba rapids with little difficulty. At
the Karivua rapids they had considerable difficulty, but escaped with a wetting
to their goods. At the Kebra-basa rapids, near the confluence of the Loangwa,
Dr. Kirk was nearly drowned and valuable instruments and notes lost, and
the party, landing there, walked to Tete, where they arrived on 23 Nov.,
having spent six months on the journey. Livingstone left in the Ma-Robert
for the Kongoni on 3 Dec. After many difficulties with the steamer she grounded
on 21 Dec. on a sandbank and filled. Most of the property of the expedition
was saved, but Livingstone and his party had to spend Christmas encamped
on the island of Tshimba, a little above Sena, until the Portuguese sent
canoes and took them to the Kongoni mouth. They arrived there on 4 Jan. 1861,
and lodged in the newly built Portuguese station.
On 31 Jan. 1861 the long-expected new steamer for the Zambesi, the Pioneer,
arrived from England, and at the same time two of H.M.'s cruisers brought
Bishop Mackenzie and six missionaries sent by the Universities' Mission.
By this time Livingstone knew the Shire river well, and he had learnt that,
whatever personal hospitality had been shown to him by the Portuguese, a
water-way under their jurisdiction was not the best on which to place a mission
to reach Lake Nyasa. He had, moreover, received instructions from home to
explore the Rovuma, and as the Pioneer drew too much water for the Shire
at this season, it seemed desirable to take the mission up the Rovuma, and
plant it at Lake Nyasa, or as near as a suitable place could be found. The
mission party were accordingly conveyed to the island of Johanna, in the
Comoro group, to wait there while Livingstone and the bishop explored the
Rovuma. They left the mouth of the Rovuma on 11 March, but were only able
to ascend thirty miles, as the water was rapidly falling and the rainy season
was over. On their return they rejoined the missionaries at Johanna, and
with them re-entering the Zambesi through the Kongoni mouth, passed up to
the Shire. The Pioneer still drew far too much water for the Shire. The toil
and time spent in ascending was excessive, and it was only after great difficulty
that Tshibisa's, near Katunga, was reached in the middle of July. Here they
heard of raids of the Wa-yao or A-jawa on the Mañanja to procure slaves
for the Portuguese. Livingstone and the bishop, however, resolved to explore
the Shire highlands to select a site for a mission station, and on their
way they encountered several slave parties and liberated the slaves, who
attached themselves to the mission. A place called Magomero was chosen and
the bishop was invited by the Mañanja chief to settle there. While
Livinqstone and the missionaries were on their way they were attacked by
the Wa-yao slave raiders. In self-defence they had to fire a volley from
their rifles, which dispersed the enemy, but they decided not to pursue the
Wa-yao and release the Mañanja captives they had taken, and proceeded
to Magomero. After the mission was safely established, Livingstone turned
with his expedition to the west, and leaving the Pioneer at Tshibisa's, engaged
porters, carried the gig round the Murchison Cataracts, and on 2 Sept. 1861
sailed into Lake Nyasa. He explored the western coast, rounding the mountain
promontory which he had named Cape Maclear. He found the slave-trade flourishing
on shore, and horrible cruelties accompanying it. By the end of October their
goods were exhausted and no provisions were procurable; so they had to return,
and reached the Pioneer on 8 Nov., having suffered more from hunger than
on any previous journey. They were visited by Bishop Mackenzie, who reported
favourably of the mission, and it was arranged that the Pioneer should bring
up the bishop's sister, Miss Mackenzie, who was expected with Mrs. Livingstone
from the Cape, and an appointment was made for January 1862 at the mouth
of the Ruo, where the bishop was to meet them. The Pioneer was stranded for
five weeks on a shoal, and only reached the Zambesi on 11 Jan. On the 30th
she met H.M.S. Gorgon at the Luabo mouth with Mrs. Livingstone, Miss Mackenzie,
Mrs. Burrup, and other members of the mission, and a new boat, the Lady Nyassa,
ordered by Livingstone at his own cost. The party at once, with Captain Wilson
of the Gorgon, made for the Ruo, and not finding the bishop there, went on
to Tshibisa, where they heard of his death and that of Mr. Barrup, his companion.
The next few weeks were occupied in conveying to the Gorgon the ladies and
all the mission party, except Horace Waller and Hugh Rowley, who decided
to remain. On 4 April 1862 the Gorgon sailed with the mission party, and
on 11 April Livingstone and his wife and party left for Shupanga with further
sections of the Lady Nyassa. The season was unhealthy, and about the middle
of the month Mrs. Livingstone was prostrated with fever, and in spite of
every attention from her husband and Dr. Kirk, died on the 27th, and was
buried under the large baobab tree at Shupanga.
Greatly overcome by this calamity, Livingstone worked on with resignation
and dogged determination. On 23 June the Lady Nyassa was launched on the
Zambesi, but as the waters of the Shire had fallen too low to allow of ascending,
Livingstone made another attempt to ascend the Rovuma, leaving Kongoni in
the Pioneer on 6 Aug. He navigated the river for 160 miles, and finding that
it was navigable no further, he returned to the Zambesi at the end of November,
and reached Shupanga on 19 Dec., leaving again on 10 Jan. 1863 with the Lady
Nyassa in tow. All up the Shire they saw the most sickening scenes of destruction
due to slave-raids. On arrival at the Murchison Falls the Lady Nyassa was
unscrewed and the party began to make a road by which to transport the pieces
over the forty miles round the falls. But neither native labour nor supplies
were obtained. Dysentery attacked the party, and Kirk and Charles Livingstone
were ordered home; but when they were about to start David Livingstone fell
ill and Kirk remained till he was convalescent. Kirk finally left on 9 May
1863. Livingstone, hoping to find the boat he had left above the falls, on
his return from the lake, went with Rae, who had rejoined the expedition,
to the Upper Shire, but found the boat had been burned by the Mañanja
three months before. On returning to the Pioneer on 2 July 1863 he found
a despatch awaiting him from Lord Russell, ordering the withdrawal of the
expedition. On receiving this despatch Livingstone wrote to Mr. Waller: "I
don't know whether I am to go on the shelf or not. If I do, I make Africa
the shelf." As it was impossible for the Pioneer to reach the sea until the
floods of December, Livingstone arranged to have the Lady Nyassa screwed
together again, and while this was doing to have a boat carried past the
cataracts; but by the carelessness of his men the boat was wrecked. Livingstone
then organised a little expedition from the crew of the Pioneer, and eventually
reached Kota-Kota, on the shores of Lake Nyasa, where they were kindly received
by the Arabs. During a short stay they collected information about the
slave-trade, and then, going due west along the great route to Central Africa
which leads to Lake Bemba or Bangweolo and the Upper Congo, reached a place
called Tshimanga, in the vicinity of the Loangwa river, where Livingstone
was truly told that he was only ten days' journey from Lake Bangweolo. But
as the pay of his men was positively to cease on 31 Dec. Livingstone felt
that, great as the temptation was to go on, it would be unfair to the men,
and he retraced his steps to Lake Nyasa, which he reached on 8 Oct., and
regained the Pioneer on 1 Nov. The river, however, did not rise sufficiently
till 19 Jan. 1864, and then the Pioneer carried away her rudder on a sandbank,
so that they did not reach Morambala, where he picked up the remaining members
of the Universities' Mission, until 2 Feb. On 15 Feb. he reached the mouth
of the Zambesi, where he was met by H.M.S. Orestes and Ariel, which towed
the Lady Nyassa and the Pioneer through a hurricane to Mozambique. There
the expedition came to an end. The Pioneer returned to the Cape with the
Rev. Horace Waller and the remainder of the mission, and Livingstone took
the Lady Nyassa to Zanzibar to try to sell her. Finding no buyer, he made
a plucky voyage across the Indian Ocean to Bombay in the tiny craft with
only a European stoker, carpenter, and sailor, and seven native men and two
native boys who had never been at sea (one of whom, Chuma, was with him to
the end of his life). He sailed from Zanzibar on 30 April and entered Bombay
harbour unnoticed on 13 June. He received every kindness from Sir Bartle
Frere (the governor), and failing to sell his ship, left her at Bombay pending
his possible return, and, borrowing the passage money for himself and one
of his men embarked for England, where he arrived on 23 July 1864.
After a week of feting in London he visited his aged mother and his children
in Scotland. In September he attended the meeting of the British Association
at Bath and read a paper on Africa. He then went with his daughter Agnes
to stay with his old friend Mr. Webb at Newstead Abbey, and remained there
for eight months, writing "The Zambesi and its Tributaries," compiled from
his own and his brother Charles's journals.
In the beginning of 1865 Sir Roderick Murchison proposed that Livingstone
should resume the exploration of Africa, and should proceed up the Rovuma
and endeavour to solve the question of the Nile basin. Livingstone desired
to devote himself more especially to opening up Nyasaland, either by the
Zambesi or Rovuma, but hoped to combine the two objects, and not waiting
for the publication of his book, which came out in the autumn, he left London
13 Aug. 1865, and arrived in Bombay on 11 Sept. Here he sold the Lady Nyassa,
which had cost him 6,000£, for 2,300£. He invested the money in
shares in an Indian bank which failed a year or two afterwards. He enjoyed
a pleasant stay in India till January 1866. Sir Bartle Frere, governor of
Bombay, gave him a passage to Zanzibar in the Thule, a government vessel,
which he commissioned him to present to the sultan of Zanzibar as a gift
from the Bombay government. He naturally received a very friendly reception
from the sultan, and was furnished with letters of recommendation to the
Arabs of the interior. He had brought with him from India some boys from
the Nassick Mission, and thirteen sepoys, as a nucleus for his expedition.
At Zanzibar he engaged ten Johanna men and four natives of Nyasaland, and
bought camels, buffaloes, mules, and donkeys to experiment on their resistance
to the effect of the tsetse fly. He arrived off the Rovuma in H.M.S. Penguin
on 22 March, but owing to difficulties of entering, landed in Mikindani Bay
on 4 April. The animals were overloaded and maltreated by the sepoys, and
bitten by the tsetse fly. Having struck the river, they marched along its
north bank as far as the town of Mtarika in the northern part of the Yao
country, passing many ghastly scenes of the slave-trade. From Mtarika Livingstone
turned to the south-west for the town of Mataka. The behaviour of the sepoys
became intolerable, and they were paid off at Mataka, where Livingstone was
very hospitably treated by the Yao chief, and whence on 29 July 1866 he started
for Nyasa, arriving without difficulty on 8 Aug. He marched round the south
end of the lake to the settlement formed by Mponda, an influential Mohammedanised
chief. Thence Livingstone continued his journey round the south-western gulf
of Lake Nyasa. At Marenga's town the Johanna men, scared by rumours that
the country in front was being raided by the Angoni Zulus, deserted him.
He obtained canoes from Marenga, and passed round the heel of Lake Nyasa
to the town of Kimsusa, who treated him well and escorted him northwards,
handing him over to another friendly chief. Livingstone's party now consisted
of a few Nassick boys, Susi, a Yao man, and Chuma, a Zambesi man, and crossing
the end of the Kirk Mountains at a height of over four thousand feet, they
reached the Loangwa river on 16 Dec. 1866.
In the meantime the Johanna men had journeyed back to Zanzibar and concocted
a plausible tale that Livingstone had been killed in an encounter with Zulus.
In England public opinion was divided as to the credit to be given to the
tale, but Mr. Edward Young, the former gunner of the Pioneer, of whose work
on the Zambesi Livingstone wrote very favourably, was sent out by the
Geographical Society in command of a search expedition, which left England
in May 1867, reached the mouth of the Zambesi on 25 July, ascended the Shire
in a steel boat they had brought with them, called the Search, which was
taken to pieces and carried round the Murchison rapids, and on arrival at
Mponda's obtained satisfactory evidence that Livingstone was alive, together
with information as to his further journeys into the interior. The expedition
returned to England in the beginning of 1868, leaving the Search, which under
another name continued to run on the Upper Shire.
From the Loangwa river Livingstone travelled through the country of the Ba-bisa
towards Lake Tanganyika, passing over the dolomite mountains of Mushinga
at altitudes up to six thousand feet in a fine climate. The want of other
food compelled him to subsist principally upon African maize, and the loss
of his goats deprived him of milk, and he noted in his journal, "Took my
belt up three holes to relieve hunger." On 20 Jan. 1867, near Lisunga, a
serious disaster occurred in the desertion of two Wa-yao porters with their
loads, one of which contained the medicine-chest with all the drugs, and
Livingstone was left in the heart of Africa at a very unhealthy time of year,
when he was daily drenched with heavy rains, without medicines. His despondency
was so great on this occasion that he wrote in the diary "Felt as if I had
received my death-sentence."
On 28 Jan. he crossed the Tshambezi or Chambeza, which flows into Lake Bangweolo,
and travelled through a country which he describes as "dripping forests and
oozing bogs," and on 31 Jan. arrived at Tshitapangwa, the town of the chief
of the Ba-bemba. Thence he sent letters by a party of Swahili slave-traders,
which reached England safely, and he was able to order stores and medicine
to meet him at Ujiji. After three weeks' stay he continued his journey entering
the Ulunga country on 10 March ill with fever and scarcely able to keep up
with his people, and on 1 April came in sight of Tanganyika lake. Here, at
Pambete, near Niamkolo, at the south end of the lake, he spent a fortnight,
too ill to move, with fits of insensibility and temporary paralysis in his
limbs. Going westwards he crossed a high range of mountains and descended
into the valley of the Lofu, where a party of Arabs received him with kindness.
He was detained in the Lofu, at Tshitimbwa's town, for over three months
by a war in Itawa. He made the acquaintance of an Arab named Hamidi bill
Muhammad, better known later by his nickname, Tippoo Tib. The delay gave
Livingstone much-needed rest, and he obtained a great deal of valuable
information from the Arabs. When the war was over he started, on 22 Sept.,
in the wake of a large Arab caravan, and passed through the country of Itawa
without any trouble, making for Lake Moero, which he reached on 8 Nov., his
health having again broken down on the way. From the north-east shores of
Moero he turned south and entered the country of the chief Kazembe, a tyrant
who lopped off the ears and hands of his people for very trivial offences.
The land was fertile and there was abundance of food. Livingstone remained
a month, and on 22 Dec. paid another visit to Lake Moero, exploring the eastern
shores. He then rejoined the Arabs, and stayed for some time in their settlement
at Kabwabwata. On 16 April 1868 he started with only five attendants, the
rest having deserted, for Lake Bangweolo, passing through Kazembe's country,
where he remained some weeks. He discovered the lake on 18 July, and while
he was exploring the northern end his Arab friends engaged in hostilities
with Kazembe's people, by whom Livingstone was nearly killed on account of
his relation with the Arabs. He finally got safely out of Kazembe's country,
and joining the Arabs, re-entered Itawa towards the end of October. He remained
some time at Kabwabwata nursing himself through an attack of fever, and
speculating whether lakes Moero and Bangweolo were the real sources of the
Nile. Early in 1869 he started with the Arabs for Ujiji, but his health was
extremely bad. On 11 Feb. he arrived on the west shore of Tanganyika, and
obtaining canoes from an Arab, coasted the lake towards the north, struck
across to the east side, and on to Ujiji, where he arrived on 14 March 1869.
Here he found that the stores sent to meet him had mostly been stolen, and
he had to send for more. He rested for some months and on 12 July he started
for the cannibal country of Manyema, to the west of the lake, to find the
Lualaba river. He joined a party of Arabs and Swahilis and passed through
the Guha and Bambare countries north-westward to the village of Moenekus,
where he remained until 5 Nov., resting, and endeavouring to recover his
health, in which he was partially successful.
In company with the Arabs he travelled as far north as the Binanga Hills
(about 3º 30' S. lat.) He then turned south again, and after more than
a year's wandering he finally reached the banks of the Lualaba at Nyangwe
on 1 March 1871. He remained there in ill health, and vainly endeavouring
to get canoes until the middle of July when an atrocious massacre of Manyema
women by the Swahilis, arising out of a trivial quarrel, took place, and
though through Livingstone's intervention a sort of peace was patched up,
he was too horrified at the crimes of the Arab slave-raiders to travel under
their escort, and on 20 July he started for Ujiji. On the way back through
the Manyema country many Arabs joined his party for protection, and he was
in consequence attacked in the forest, and for five hours ran the gauntlet
of the spears of his invisible enemies. He was constantly ill on the way
from fatigue, frequent wettings, and the horrors of the slave-raiding and
cannibalism around him. He writes: "I felt as if dying on my feet, almost
every step was in pain, the appetite failed, and a little bit of meat caused
violent diarrhea, whilst the mind, sorely depressed, reacted on the body."
He reached Ujiji on 23 Oct. 1871, a living skeleton, to find all the stores
that had been sent to him had been sold off by the leading Arab of Ujiji,
known as the Shereef. At this desperate moment Mr. H.
M. Stanley, who had been sent by Mr. James Gordon Bennett, proprietor
of the "New York Herald," to find Livingstone alive or dead, arrived with
a well-equipped caravan. Stanley had reached Zanzibar on 6 Jan. 1871, and
made at once for Ujiji, but on his way became involved in the war between
the Arabs of Tabora and the Nyamwezi chief, Mirambo, and only after much
difficulty arrived at Tanganyika on 28 Oct. 1871. Medicines, food, hope,
and cheerful society soon worked a change in Livingstone, and he set out
with Stanley to make a tour of the northern end of the lake. They soon
ascertained that the Rusizi river, which enters the lake in a small delta
at the north end, flowed into and not out of the lake. They returned to Ujiji,
and after delays consequent on Stanley's illness, through which Livingstone
nursed him with assiduity, they journeyed, on 27 Dec. 1871, together to
Unyanyembe, where they arrived on 18 Feb. 1872. Stanley in vain urged Livingstone
to return to England with him. Livingstone was possessed with the idea of
finding the source of the Nile, and as it had become his conviction that
the Lualaba must be the Upper Nile, he did not deem it necessary to prove
it by descending the stream into the Albert Nyanza, but directed his attention
to the discovery and mapping of its sources in Lake Bangweolo and on the
Katanga highlands. On 14 March 1872 Stanley, having furnished Livingstone
with medicine and all necessaries, reluctantly left for Zanzibar. Stanley
wrote that for the four months he had lived with Livingstone he never found
a fault in him, and that though himself a man of a quick temper, with Livingstone
he never had cause for resentment, but each day's life with him added to
his admiration of him. A search expedition under Commander Dawson, R.N.,
and Lieutenant Henn, and including the Rev. Charles New and Oswell Livingstone,
youngest son of the doctor, had been sent by the Royal Geographical Society
and others to look for Livingstone but meeting Stanley at Bagamoio, returned
to England with him.
Livingstone remained at Unyanyembe awaiting the men to be sent to him by
Stanley. They arrived on 9 Aug. 1872, and on the 25th he started with all
his old eagerness for Tanganyika, but he was unfit for more travel: he suffered
acutely from dysentery and loss of blood from hæmorrhoids, but managed
to ride his donkey, and reached the lake on 14 Oct. He skirted the south-east
coast through the Fipa and Ulungu countries, and then turned south and west
until he reached the Kalongosi river, which flows into Lake Moero. Crossing
the river and high range of mountains beyond, he descended into the district
north of Lake Bangweolo, which is one vast, sponge. Here the situation was
terrible. Starvation was constantly menacing the party, canoes could not
be got, and Livingstone was gradually dying. He crossed the Tshambezi river
on 4 April 1873, and proceeded along the swampy shores of Bangweolo, tormented
with swarms of mosquitoes, poisonous spiders, and stinging ants. On 15 March
Livingstone had addressed his last despatch to Lord Granville. On 9 April
he took his last observation for latitude. From the middle of April he was
so ill that he had to be carried in a litter. On 27 April he made the last
entry in his note-book. On 30 April he arrived at Tshitambo's village, in
the country of Ilala. He asked, "How many days to go to the Luapula?" and
on being told three, he only answered, "Oh dear! dear!" Having got his man
Susi to give him some calomel, he said, "All right; you can go out now,"
and these were his last words. At four o'clock next morning Susi found him
dead, kneeling by the side of his bed, his body stretched forward and his
head buried in his hands upon the pillow. Livingstone's men behaved admirably.
They made an inventory of his effects, and packed them in tin boxes. They
made a handsome present to Tshitambo, that he might help in paying honours
to the dead. There was a general mourning, and volleys were fired by the
servants. They roughly embalmed the body, burying the heart and viscera.
Jacob Wainwright a Nassick boy, read the burial service. The body was then
enclosed in a cylinder of bark, and enveloped in sailcloth and lashed to
a pole, to be carried by two men, and they started for the coast. At Kwihara,
near Tabora, they met the second Livingstone relief expedition, sent out
by the Royal Geographical Society, under Lieutenant (now Commander) Cameron,
C.B. The officers thought it best to bury the body, but Livingstone's men
were resolved that their master's body should be sent to England, and the
officers wisely deferred to their wishes. At Bagamoio they were met by the
acting-consul-general from Zanzibar, who took charge of the body, and
Livingstone's faithful servants received no word of acknowledgment, nor even
the offer of a passage to Zanzibar. It was due to the generosity of Mr. James
Young that Susi, the Shupanga man, and Chuma, a boy rescued by Livingstone
from slavery in the Shire highlands, his devoted attendants, were brought
to England.
Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey on 18 April 1874. A black slab
in the centre of the nave in the Abbey marks his resting-place.
Sir Bartle Frere, as president of the Royal Geographical Society, wrote:
"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;" and again, "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, modelled
on the precepts of his great Master and Exemplar."
He was the author of: 1. "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa,"
post 8vo, London, 1857; another edition, 8vo, London, 1875. 2. "Narrative
of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, and of the Discovery
of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864," London, post 8vo, 1865.
A drawing of Livingstone, made by Joseph Bonomi in 1857, is in the National
Portrait Gallery, London.
[Livingstone's own works as above; Heroes of Discovery, by Samuel Mossman,
post 8vo. Edinburgh, 1867, new edit. 1877; How I Found Livingstone. Travels,
Adventures, and Discoveries in Central Africa, by H. M. Stanley, London,
8vo, 1872; Royal Geographical Society Proceedings, obituary notice by Sir
Bartle Frere, Vol. xviii. 1874; The Last Journals of David Livingstone in
Central Africa, from 1865 to his death, by Horace Waller, 2 vols. 8vo, London,
1874; David Livingstone, Missionary and Discoverer, by Jabez Marrat, 12mo,
London, 1877; Livingstone, the Missionary Traveller, by Samuel Mossman, post
8vo, London, 1882; The Personal Life of David Livingstone, by Dr. W. G. Blaikie,
8vo, London: 1888; Livingstone and the Exploration of Central Africa, by
H. H. Johnston, 8vo, London, 1891; David Livingstone, by Thomas Hughes (English
Men of Action Series), 8vo, London, 1891.]
David Livingstone (1813-1873), African missionary
and explorer, was born at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, [Scotland] on 19 March 1813.
His great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden fighting for the Stuarts.
His grandfather was a small farmer at Ulva in the Hebrides, who, finding
his farm insufficient to support a numerous family, moved in 1792 to Blantyre
in Lanarkshire, about seven miles from Glasgow, where he found employment
in the cotton factory of H. Monteith & Co. His sons became clerks in
the same factory, but, with the exception of Neil, all entered either the
army or navy during the war with France. Neil, after serving an apprenticeship
to David Hunter, a tailor, married in 1810 his daughter Agnes, eventually
became a small tea-dealer, and spent his life at Blantyre and Hamilton. He
was a religious man, and for the last twenty years of his life held the office
of deacon of an independent church at Hamilton. He had five sons and two
daughters, and set them a consistent example of piety, while the mother,
a delicate woman, with a flow of good spirits, did her best to make the two
ends meet.
In
1844 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Dr. Moffat (image right), and took
her to Mabotsa. She had been born and brought up in the country, was an expert
in all household duties, and of cultured tastes. At Mabotsa she took charge
of the infant school, but owing to a disagreement with the missionary who
had accompanied them, Livingstone in 1846 gave up the house he had built,
the garden he had made, and the station he had organised with much trouble
and expense, and moved to Tshonuane, forty miles further north, and the
headquarters of the Bechuana chief, Setshele, who showed an intelligent interest
in Christianity. From Tshonuane Livingstone made a long journey eastwards
to the Kashane Mountains, or Magaliesberg, through the heart of what is now
the Transvaal State. On his return to Tshonuane his eldest son, Robert, was
born. When Livingstone had finished the erection of a school, and had organised
systematic instruction under native teachers, he again travelled east,
accompanied by his wife and infant son. It was here that the famous white
hunter 
