The Personal Life of David Livingstone Part 11

"The conversion of a few, however valuable their souls may be, cannot be put into the scale against the knowledge of the truth spread over the whole country. In this I do and will exult. As in India, we are doomed to perpetual disappointment; but the knowledge of Christ spreads over the ma.s.ses. We are like voices crying in the wilderness. We prepare the way for a glorious future in which missionaries telling the same tale of love will convert by every sermon. I am trying now to establish the Lord's kingdom in a region wider by far than Scotland. Fever seems to forbid; but I shall work for the glory of Christ's kingdom--fever or no fever. All the intelligent men who direct our society and understand the nature of my movements support me warmly. A few, I understand, in Africa, in writing home, have styled my efforts as 'wanderings.' The very word contains a lie coiled like a serpent in its bosom. It means traveling without an object, or uselessly. I am now performing the duty of writing you. If this were termed 'dawdling,' it would be as true as the other.... I have actually seen letters to the Directors in which I am gravely charged with holding the views of the Plymouth Brethren, So very sure am I that I am in the path which G.o.d's Providence has pointed out, as that by which Christ's kingdom is to be promoted, that if the Society should object, I would consider it my duty to withdraw from it....

_"P.S._--My throat became well during the long silence of traveling across the desert. It plagues again now that I am preaching in a moist climate."

Dr. Livingstone now began his preparations for the journey from Linyanti to Loanda. Sekeletu was kind and generous. The road was impracticable for wagons, and the native trader, George Fleming, returned to Kuruman, The Kuruman guides had not done well, so that Livingstone resolved to send them back, and to get Makololo men instead.

Here is the record of his last Sunday at Linyanti:

"_6th Nov., 1853_.--Large audience. Kuruman people don't attend. If it is a fashion to be church-going, many are drawn into its observance. But placed in other circ.u.mstances, the true character comes out. This is the case with many Scotchmen. May G.o.d so imbue my mind with the spirit of Christianity that in all circ.u.mstances I may show my Christian character! Had a long conversation with Motlube, chiefly on a charm for defending the town or for gun medicine. They think I know it but will not impart the secret to them. I used every form of expression to undeceive him, but to little purpose. Their belief in medicine which will enable them to shoot well is very strong, and simple trust in an unseen Saviour to defend them against such enemies as the Matebele is too simple for them. I asked if a little charcoal sewed up in a bag were a more feasible protector than He who made all things, and told them that one day they would laugh heartily at their own follies in bothering me so much for gun medicine. A man who has never had to do with a raw heathen tribe has yet to learn the Missionary A B C."

On the 8th he writes:

"Our intentions are to go up the Leeba till we reach the falls, then send back the canoe and proceed in the country beyond as best we can. Matiamvo is far beyond, but the Ca.s.santse (probably Ca.s.sange) live on the west of the river.

May G.o.d in mercy permit me to do something for the cause of Christ in these dark places of the earth! May He accept my children for his service, and sanctify them for it! My blessing on my wife. May G.o.d comfort her! If my watch comes back after I am cut off, it belongs to Agnes. If my s.e.xtant, it is Robert's. The Paris medal to Thomas. Double-barreled gun to Zouga. Be a Father to the fatherless, and a Husband to the widow, for Jesus' sake."

The probability of his falling was full in his view. But the thought was ever in his mind, and ever finding expression in letters both to the Missionary and the Geographical Societies, and to all his friends,--"Can the love of Christ not carry the missionary where the slave-trade carries the trader?" His wagon and goods were left with Sekeletu, and also the Journal from which these extracts are taken[39].

It was well for him that his conviction of duty was clear as noonday. A year after, he wrote to his father-in-law:

[Footnote 39: This Journal is mentioned in the _Missionary Travels_ as having been lost (p. 229). It was afterward recovered. It contains, among other things, some important notes on Natural History.]

I had fully made up my mind as to the path of duty before starting. I wrote to my brother-in-law, Robert Moffat: 'I shall open up a path into the interior, or perish.' I never have had the shadow of a shade of doubt as to the propriety of my course, and wish only that my exertions may be honored so far that the gospel may be preached and believed in all this dark region."

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA.

A.D. 1853-1854.

Difficulties and hardships of journey--His traveling kit--Four books--His Journal--Mode of traveling--Beauty of country--Repulsiveness of the people--Their religious belief--The negro--Preaching--The magic-lantern--Loneliness of feeling--Slave-trade--Management of the natives--Danger from Chiboque--from another chief--Livingstone ill of fever--At the Quango--Attachment of followers--"The good time coming"--Portuguese settlements--Great kindness of the Portuguese--Arrives at Loanda--Received by Mr. Gabriel--His great friendship--No letters--News through Mr. Gabriel--Livingstone becomes aquainted with naval officers--Resolves to go back to Linyanti and make for East Coast--Letter to his wife--Correspondence with Mr.

Maclear--Accuracy of his observations--Sir John Herschel--Geographical Society award their gold metal--Remarks of Lord Ellesmere.

The journey from Linyanti to Loanda occupied from the 11th November, 1853, to 31st May, 1854. It was in many ways the most difficult and dangerous that Livingstone had yet performed, and it drew out in a very wonderful manner the rare combination of qualities that fitted him for his work. The route had never been traversed, so far as any trustworthy tradition went, by any European. With the exception of a few of Sekeletu's tusks, the oxen needed for carrying, and a trifling amount of coffee, cloth, beads, etc., Livingstone had neither stores of food for his party, nor presents with which to propitiate the countless tribes of rapacious and suspicious savages that lined his path. The Barotse men who accompanied him, usually called the "Makololo," though on the whole faithful and patient, "the best that ever accompanied me," were a burden in one sense, as much as a help in another; chicken-hearted, ready to succ.u.mb to every trouble, and to be cowed by any chief that wore a threatening face. Worse if possible, Livingstone himself was in wretched health. During this part of the journey he had constant attacks of intermittent fever[40], accompanied in the latter stages of the road with dysentery of the most distressing kind. In the intervals of fever he was often depressed alike in body and in mind. Often the party were dest.i.tute of food of any sort, and never had they food suitable for a fever-stricken invalid. The vexations he encountered were of no common kind: at starting, the greater part of his medicines was stolen, much though he needed them; in the course of the journey, his pontoon was left behind; at one time, while he was under the influence of fever, his riding-ox threw him, and he fell heavily on his head; at another, while crossing a river, the ox tossed him into the water; the heavy rains, and the necessity of wading through streams three or four times a day, kept him almost constantly wet; and occasionally, to vary the annoyance, mosquitos would a.s.sail him as fiercely as if they had been waging a war of extermination. The most critical moments of peril, demanding the utmost coolness and most dauntless courage, would sometimes occur during the stage of depression after fever; it was then he had to extricate himself from savage warriors, who vowed that he must go back, unless he gave them an ox, a gun, or a man. The ox he could ill spare, the gun not at all, and as for giving the last--a man--to make a slave of, he would sooner die. At the best, he was a poor ragged skeleton when he reached those who had hearts to feel for him and hands to help him. Had he not been a prodigy of patience, faith, and courage, had he not known where to find help in all time of his tribulation, he would never have reached the haunts of civilized men.

[Footnote 40: The number of attacks was thirty-one.]

His traveling-kit was reduced to the smallest possible ilk; that he minded little, but he was vexed to be able to take so few books. A few days after setting out, he writes in his private Journal;

"I feel the want of books in this journey more than anything else. A Sichuana Pentateuch, a lined journal, Thomson's Tables, a Nautical Almanac, and a Bible, const.i.tute my stock.

The last const.i.tutes my chief resource; but the want of other mental pabulum is felt severely. There is little to interest in the conversation of the people. Loud disputes often about the women, and angry altercations in which the same string of abuse is used, are more frequent than anything else."

The "lined journal," of which mention is made here, was probably the most wonderful thing of the kind ever taken on such a journey. It is a strongly bound quarto volume of more then 800 pages, with a lock and key. The writing is so neat and clear that it might almost be taken for lithograph. Occasionally there is a page with letters beginning to sprawl, as if one of those times had come when he tells us that he-could neither think nor speak, nor tell any one's name--possibly not even his own, if he had been asked it. He used to jot his observations on little note-books, and extend them when detained by rain or other causes.

The journal differs in some material respects from the printed record of this journey. It is much more explicit in setting forth the bad treatment he often received. When he spoke of these things to the public, he made constant use of the mantle of charity, and the record of many a bad deed and many a bad character is toned down. Naturally, too, the journal is more explicit on the subject of his own troubles, and more free in recording the play of his feelings. It does not hide the communings of his heart with his heavenly Father. It is built up in a random-rubble style; here a solemn prayer, in the next line a note of lunar observations; then a dissertation on the habits of the hippopotamus. Notes bearing on the character, the superst.i.tions, 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 pa.s.sed 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 Sekeletu, 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 pa.s.sed after leaving the river. Instinctively he would compare it with Scotland. A beautiful valley reminds him of his native vale of Clyde, seen from the spot where Mary Queen of Scots saw the battle of Langside; only the Scottish scene is but a miniature of the much greater and richer landscape before him. At the sight of the mountains he would feel his Highland blood rushing through him, banishing all thoughts of fever and fatigue. If only the blessings of the gospel could be spread among the people, what a glorious land it would become! But alas for the people!

In most cases they were outwardly very repulsive. Never seen without a spear or a club in their hands, the men seemed only to delight in plunder and slaughter, and yet they were utter cowards. Their mouths were full of cursing and bitterness. The execrations they poured on each other were incredible. In very wantonness, when they met they would pelt each other with curses, and then perhaps burst into a fit of laughter.

The women, like the men, went about in almost total nudity, and seemed to know no shame. So reckless were the chiefs of human life, that a man might be put to death for a single distasteful word; yet sometimes there were exhibitions of very tender feeling. The headman of a village once showed him, with much apparent feeling, the burnt house of a child of his, adding,--"She perished in it, and we have all removed from our own huts and built here round her, in order to weep over her grave." From some of the people he received great kindness; others were quite different. Their character, in short, was a riddle, and would need to be studied more. But the prevalent aspect of things was both distressing and depressing. If he had thought of it continually, he would have become the victim of melancholy. It was a characteristic of his large and buoyant nature, that, besides having the resource of spiritual thought, he was able to make use of another divine corrective to such a tendency, to find delightful recreation in science, and especially in natural history, and by this means turn the mind away for a time from the dark scenes of man's depravity.

The people all seemed to recognize a Supreme Being; but it was only occasionally, in times of distress, that they paid Him homage. They had no love for Him like that of Christians for Jesus--only terror. Some of them, who were true negroes, had images, simple but grotesque. Their strongest belief was in the power of medicines acting as charms. They fully recognized the existence of the soul after death. Some of them believed in the metamorphosis of certain persons into alligators or hippopotamuses, or into lions. This belief could not be shaken by any arguments--at least on the part of man. The negroes proper interested him greatly; they were numerous, prolific, and could not be extirpated.

He almost regretted that Mr. Moffat had translated the Bible into Sichuana. That language might die out; but the negro might sing, "Men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever."

The incessant attacks of fever from which Livingstone suffered in this journey, the continual rain occurring at that season of the year, the return of the affection of the throat for which he had got his uvula excised, and the difficulty of speaking to tribes using different dialects, prevented him from, holding his Sunday services as regularly as before. Such entries in his Journal as the following are but too frequent:

"_Sunday, 19th_.--Sick all Sunday and unable to move. Several of the people were ill too, so that I could do nothing but roll from side to side in my miserable little tent, in which, with all the shade we could give it, the thermometer stood upward of 90."

But though little able to preach, Livingstone made the most of an apparatus which in some degree compensated his lack of speech--a magic-lantern which his friend, a former fellow-traveler, Mr. Murray, had given him. The pictures of Abraham offering up Isaac, and other Bible scenes, enabled him to convey important truths in a way that attracted the people. It was, he says, the only service he was ever asked to repeat. The only uncomfortable feeling it raised was on the part of those who stood on the side where the slides were drawn out.

They were terrified lest the figures, as they pa.s.sed along, should take possession of them, entering like spirits into their bodies!

The loneliness of feeling engendered by the absence of all human sympathy was trying. "Amidst all the beauty and loveliness with which I am surrounded, there is still a feeling of want in the soul,--as if something more were needed to bathe the soul in bliss than the sight of the perfection in working and goodness in planning of the great Father of our spirits. I need to be purified--fitted for the eternal, to which my soul stretches away, in ever returning longings. I need to be made more like my blessed Saviour, to serve my G.o.d with all my powers. Look upon me, Spirit of the living G.o.d, and supply all Thou seest lacking."

It was Livingstone's great joy to begin this long journey with a blessed act of humanity, boldly summoning a trader to release a body of captives, so that no fewer than eighteen souls were restored to freedom.

As he proceeded he obtained but too plain evidence of the extent to which the slave traffic prevailed, uniformly finding that wherever slavers had been, the natives were more difficult to deal with and more exorbitant in their demands. Slaves in chains were sometimes met with--a sight which some of his men had never beheld before.

Livingstone's successful management of the natives const.i.tuted the crowning wonder of this journey. Usually the hearts of the chiefs were wonderfully turned to him, so that they not only allowed him to pa.s.s on, but supplied him with provisions. But there were some memorable occasions on which he and his company appeared to be doomed. When he pa.s.sed through the Chiboque country, the provisions were absolutely spent; there was no resource but to kill a riding-ox, a part of which, according to custom, was sent to the chief. Next day was Sunday. After service the chief sent an impudent message demanding much more valuable presents. His people collected round Livingstone, brandishing their weapons, and one young man all but brought down his sword on his head.

It seemed impossible to avoid a fight; yet Livingstone's management prevailed--the threatened storm pa.s.sed away.

Some days after, in pa.s.sing through a forest in the dominions of another chief, he and his people were in momentary expectation of an attack.

They went to the chiefs village and spoke to the man himself; and here, on a Sunday, while ill of fever, Livingstone was able to effect a temporary settlement. The chief sent them some food; then yams, a goat, fowl, and meat. Livingstone gave him a shawl, and two bunches of beads, and he seemed pleased. During these exciting scenes he felt no fever; but when they were over the constant wettings made him experience a sore sense of sinking, and this Sunday was a day "of perfect uselessness."

Monday came, and while Livingstone was as low as possible, the inexorable chief renewed his demands. "It was," he says, "a day of torture."

"After talking nearly the whole day we gave the old chief an ox, but he would not take it, but another. I was grieved exceedingly to find that our people had become quite disheartened, and all resolved to return home. All I can say has no effect. I can only look up to G.o.d to influence their minds, that the enterprise fail not, now that we have reached the very threshold of the Portuguese settlements. I am greatly distressed at this change, for what else can be done for this miserable land I do not see. It is shut. O Almighty G.o.d, help, help! and leave not this wretched people to the slave-dealer and Satan. The people have done well hitherto, I see G.o.d's good influence in it. Hope He has left only for a little season. No land needs the gospel more than this miserable portion. I hope I am not to be left to fail in introducing it."

On Wednesday morning, however, final arrangements were made, and the party pa.s.sed on in peace. Ten days later, again on a Sunday, they were once more pestered by a great man demanding dues. Livingstone replied by simply defying him. He might kill him, but G.o.d would judge. And on the Monday they left peaceably, thankful for their deliverance, some of the men remarking, in view of it, that they were "children of Jesus," and Livingstone thanking G.o.d devoutly for his great mercy. Next day they were again stopped at the river Quango. The poor Makololo had parted in vain with their copper ornaments, and Livingstone with his razors, shirts, etc.; yet he had made up his mind (as he wrote to the Geographical Society afterward) to part with his blanket and coat to get a pa.s.sage, when a young Portuguese sergeant, Cypriano de Abrao, made his appearance, and the party were allowed to pa.s.s.

There were many proofs that, though a poor set of fellows, Livingstone's own followers were animated with extraordinary regard for him. No wonder! They had seen how sincere he was in saying that he would die rather than give any of them up to captivity. And all his intercourse with them had been marked by similar proofs of his generosity and kindness. When the ox flung him into the river, about twenty of them made a simultaneous rush for his rescue, and their joy at his safety was very great.

Amid all that was discouraging in the present aspect of things, Livingstone could always look forward and rejoice in the good time coming:

"_Sunday 22d_.--This age presents one great fact in the Providence of G.o.d; missions are sent forth to all quarters of the world,--missions not of one section of the Church, but of all sections, and from nearly all Christian nations. It seems very unfair to judge of the success of these by the number of conversions which have followed. These are rather proofs of the missions being of the right sort. They show the direction of the stream which is set in motion by Him who rules the nations, and Is destined to overflow the world. The fact which ought to stimulate us above all others is, not that we have contributed to the conversion of a few souls, however valuable these may be, but that we are diffusing a knowledge of Christianity throughout the world. The number of conversions in India is but a poor criterion of the success which has followed the missionaries there. The general knowledge is the criterion; and there, as well as in other lands where missionaries in the midst of ma.s.ses of heathenism seem like voices crying in the wilderness--Reformers before the Reformation, future missionaries will see conversions follow every sermon. We prepare the way for them. May they not forget the pioneers who worked in the thick gloom with few rays to cheer, except such as flow from faith in G.o.d's promises! We work for a glorious future which we are not destined to see--the golden age which has not been, but will yet be. We are only morning-stars shining in the dark, but the glorious morn will break, the good time coming yet. The present mission-stations will all be broken up. No matter how great the outcry against the instrumentality which G.o.d employs for his purposes, whether by French soldiery as in Tahiti, or tawny Boers as in South Africa, our duty is onward, onward, proclaiming G.o.d's Word whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. A few conversions show whether G.o.d's Spirit is in a mission or not. No mission which has his approbation is entirely unsuccessful. His purposes have been fulfilled, if we have been faithful. 'The nation or kingdom that will not serve Thee shall utterly be destroyed'--this has often been preceded by free offers of friendship and mercy, and many missions which He has sent in the olden time seemed bad failures. Noah's preaching was a failure, Isaiah thought his so too. Poor Jeremiah is sitting weeping tears over his people, everybody cursing the honest man, and he ill-pleased with his mother for having borne him among such a set. And Ezekiel's stiff-necked, rebellious crew were no better. Paul said, 'All seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ,' and he knew that after his departure grievous wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock. Yet the cause of G.o.d is still carried on to more enlightened developments of his will and character, and the dominion is being given by the power of commerce and population unto the people of the saints of the Most High. And this is an everlasting kingdom, a little stone cut out of a mountain without hands which shall cover the whole earth. For this time we work; may G.o.d accept our imperfect service!"

At length Livingstone began to get near the coast, reaching the outlying Portuguese stations. He was received by the Portuguese gentlemen with great kindness, and his wants were generously provided for. One of them gave him the first gla.s.s of wine he had taken in Africa. Another provided him with a suit of clothing. Livingstone invoked the blessing of Him who said, "I was naked and ye clothed me." His Journal is profuse in its admiration of some of the Portuguese traders, who did not like the slave-trade--not they, but had most enlightened views for the welfare of Africa. But opposite some of these eulogistical pa.s.sages of the Journal there were afterward added an expressive series of marks of interrogation.

At a later date he saw reason to doubt the sincerity of some of the professions of these gentlemen. Ingenuous and trustful, he could at first think nothing but good of those who had shown him such marked attention. Afterward, the inexorable logic of facts proved too strong, even for his unsuspecting soul. But the kindness of the Portuguese was most genuine, and Livingstone never ceased to be grateful for a single kind act. It is important to note that whatever he came to think of their policy afterward, he was always ready to make this acknowledgment.

Arrived at Loanda, 31st May, 1854, with his twenty-seven followers, he was most kindly received by Mr. Edmund Gabriel, the British Commissioner for the suppression of the slave-trade there, and everything was done by him for his comfort. The sensation of lying on an English bed, after six months lying on the ground, was indescribably delightful. Mr. Gabriel was equally attentive to him during a long and distressing attack of fever and dysentery that prostrated him soon after his arrival at Loanda. In his Journal the warmest benedictions are poured on Mr.

Gabriel, and blessings everlasting besought for his soul. One great disappointment he suffered at Loanda--not a single letter was awaiting him. His friends must have thought he could never reach it. This want of letters was a very frequent trial, especially to one who wrote so many, and of such length. The cordial friendship of Mr. Gabriel, however, was a great solace. He gave him much information, not only on all that concerned the slave-trade--now more than ever attracting his attention--but also on the natural history of the district, and he entered _con amore_ into the highest objects of his mission. Afterward, in acknowledging to the Directors of the London Missionary Society receipt of a letter for Dr. Livingstone, intrusted to his care, Mr.

Gabriel wrote as follows (20th March, 1856):

"Dr. Livingstone, after the n.o.ble objects he has achieved, most a.s.suredly wants no testimony from me. I consult, therefore, the impulse of my own mind alone, when I declare that in no respect was my intercourse more gratifying to me than in the opportunities afforded to me of observing his _earnest, active, and unwearied solicitude for the advancement of Christianity._ Few, perhaps, have had better opportunities than myself of estimating _the benefit the Christian cause in this country has derived from Dr.

Livingstone's exertions_. It is indeed fortunate for that sacred cause, and highly honorable to the London Missionary Society, _when qualities and dispositions like his are employed in propagating its blessings among men._ Irrespective, moreover, of his _laudable and single-minded conduct as a minister of the Gospel,_ and his attainments in making observations which have determined the true geography of the interior, the Directors, I am sure, will not have failed to perceive how interesting and valuable are all the communications they receive from him--as sketches of the social condition of the people, and the material, fabrics, and produce Of these lands. I most fervently pray that the kind Providence, which has. .h.i.therto carried him through so many perils and hardships, may guide him safely to his present journey's end."

The friendship of Mr. Gabriel was honorable both to himself and to Dr.

Livingstone. At a very early period he learned to appreciate Livingstone thoroughly, he saw how great as well as how good a man he was, and felt that to be the friend of such a man was one of the highest distinctions he could have. After Livingstone left Loanda, and while he was detained within reach of letters, a brisk correspondence pa.s.sed between them; Mr.

Gabriel tells him about birds, helps him in his schemes for promoting lawful commerce, goes into ecstasies over a watch-chain which he had got from him, tells him the news of the battle of the Alma in the Crimea, in which his friend, Colonel Steele, had distinguished himself, and of the success of the Rae Expedition in finding the remains of the party under Sir John Franklin. In an official communication to Lord Clarendon, after Livingstone had left, Mr. Gabriel says, 5th August, 1855: "I am grieved to say that this excellent man's health has suffered a good deal [on the return journey]. He nevertheless wrote in cheerful spirits, sanguine of success in doing his duty under the guidance and protection of that kind Providence who had always carried him through so many perils and hardships. He a.s.sures me that since he knew the value of Christianity, he has ever wished to spend his life in propagating its blessings among men, and adds that the same desire remains still as strong as ever."