The Personal Life of David Livingstone Part 19

It was the great pathway for conveying slaves from the north and northwest to Zanzibar. Of this he had only too clear evidence in the gangs of slaves whom he saw marched along from time to time, and whom he would have been most eager to release had he known of any way of preventing them from falling again into the hands of the slave-sellers.

In this region Englishmen "might enjoy good health, and also be of signal benefit, by leading the mult.i.tude of industrious inhabitants to cultivate cotton, maize, sugar, and other valuable produce, to exchange for goods of European manufacture, at the same time teaching them, by precept and example, the great truths of our holy religion."

Water-carriage existed all the way from England, with the exception of the Murchison Cataracts, along which a road of forty miles might easily be made. A small steamer on the lake would do more good in suppressing the slave-trade than half-a-dozen men-of-war in the ocean. If the Zambesi could be opened to commerce the bright vision of the last ten years would be realized, and the Shire Valley and banks of the Nya.s.sa transformed into the garden of the Lord.

From the very first Livingstone saw the importance of the Shire Valley and Lake Nya.s.sa as the key to Central Africa. Ever since, it has become more and more evident that his surmise was correct. To make the occupation thoroughly effective, he thought much of the desirableness of a British colony, and was prepared to expend a great part of the remainder of his private means to carry it into effect. On August 4th, he says in his Journal:

"I have a very strong desire to commence a system of colonization of the honest poor; I would give 2000 or 3000 for the purpose. Intend to write my friend Young about it, and authorize him to draw if the project seems feasible. The Lord remember my desire, sanctify my motives, and purify all my desires. Wrote him.

"Colonization from a country such as ours ought to be one of hope, and not of despair. It ought not to be looked upon as the last and worst shift that a family can come to, but the performance of an imperative duty to our blood, our country, our religion, and to humankind. As soon as children begin to be felt an inc.u.mbrance, and what was properly in ancient times Old Testament blessings are no longer welcomed, parents ought to provide for removal to parts of this wide world where every accession is an addition of strength, and every member of the household feels in his inmost heart, 'the more the merrier.' It is a monstrous evil that all our healthy, handy, blooming daughters of England have not a fair chance at least to become the centres of domestic affections. The state of society, which precludes so many of them from occupying the position which Englishwomen are so well calculated to adorn, gives rise to enormous evils in the opposite s.e.x,--evils and wrongs which we dare not even name,--and national colonization is almost the only remedy.

Englishwomen are, in general, the most beautiful in the world, and yet our national emigration has often, by selecting the female emigrants from workhouses, sent forth the ugliest huzzies in creation to be the mothers--the model mothers--of new empires. Here, as in other cases, State necessities have led to the ill-formed and ill-informed being preferred to the well-formed and well-inclined honest poor, as if the worst as well as better qualities of mankind did not often run in the blood."

The idea of the colony quite fascinated Livingstone, and we find him writing on it fully to three of his most confidential business friends--Mr. Maclear, Mr. Young, and Sir Roderick Murchison. In all Livingstone's correspondence we find the tone of his letters modified by the character of his correspondents. While to Mr. Young and Sir Roderick he is somewhat cautious on the subject of the colony, knowing the keen practical eye they would direct on the proposal, to Mr. Maclear he is more gushing. He writes to him:

"I feel such a gush of emotion on thinking of the great work before us that I must unburden my mind. I am becoming every day more decidedly convinced that English colonization is an essential ingredient for our large success.... In this new region of Highlands no end of good could be effected in developing the trade in cotton and in discouraging that in slaves.... You know how I have been led on from one step to another by the overruling Providence of the great Parent, as I believe, in order to a great good for Africa. 'Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pa.s.s.' I have tried to do this, and now see the prospect in front spreading out grandly.... But how is the land so promising to be occupied?... How many of our home poor are fighting hard to keep body and soul together! My heart yearns over our own poor when I see so much of G.o.d's fair earth unoccupied. Here it is really so; for the people have only a few sheep and goats, and no cattle. I wonder why we cannot have the old monastery system without the celibacy. In no other part where I have been does the prospect of self-support seem so inviting, and promising so much influence. Most of what is done for the poor has especial reference to the blackguard poor."

In his letter to Mr. Young he expressed his conviction that a great desideratum in mission agency was missionary emigration by honest Christian poor to give living examples of Christian life that would insure permanency to the gospel once planted. He had always had a warm side to the English and Scottish poor--his own order, indeed. If twenty or thirty families would come out as an experiment, he was ready to give 2000 without saying from whom. He bids Mr. Young speak about the plan to Thorn of Chorley, Turner of Manchester, Lord Shaftesbury, and the Duke of Argyll. "Now, my friend," he adds, "do your best, and G.o.d's blessing be with you. Much is done for the blackguard poor. Let us remember our own cla.s.s, and do good while we have opportunity. I hereby authorize you to act in my behalf, and do whatever is to be done without hesitancy."

These letters, and their references to the honest poor, are characteristic. We have seen that among Dr. Livingstone's forefathers and connections were some very n.o.ble specimens of the honest poor. It touched him to think that, with all their worth, their life had been one protracted struggle. His sympathies were cordially with the cla.s.s. He desired with all his heart to see them with a little less of the burden and more of the comfort of life. And he believed very thoroughly that, as Christian settlers in a heathen country, they might do more to promote Christianity among the natives than solitary missionaries could accomplish.

His parents and sisters were not forgotten. His letters to home are again somewhat in the apologetic vein. He feels that some explanation must be given of his own work, and some vindication of his coadjutors:

"We are working hard," he writes to his mother, "at what some can see at a glance the importance of, while to others we appear following after the glory of discovering lakes, mountains, jenny-nettles, and puddock-stools. In reference to these people I always remember a story told me by the late Dr. Philip with great glee. When a young minister in Aberdeen, he visited an old woman in affliction, and began to talk very fair to her on the duty of resignation, trusting, hoping, and all the rest of it, when the old woman looked up into his face, and said, 'Peer thing, ye ken naething aboot it.' This is what I say to those who set themselves up to judge another man's servant. We hope our good Master may permit us to do some good to our fellow-men."

His correspondence with Sir Roderick Murchison is likewise full of the idea of the colony. He is thoroughly persuaded that no good will ever be done by the Portuguese. They are a worn-out people--utterly worn out by disease--their stamina consumed. Fresh European blood must be poured into Africa. In consequence of recent discoveries, he now sees his way open, and all his hopes of benefit to England and Africa about to be realized. This must have been one of Livingstone's happiest times.

Visions of Christian colonies, of the spread of arts and civilization, of the progress of Christianity and the Christian graces, of the cultivation of cotton and the disappearance of the slave-trade, floated before him. Already the wilderness seemed to be blossoming. But the bright consummation was not so near as it seemed. One source of mischief was yet unchecked, and from it disastrous storms were preparing to break on the enterprise.

On his way home, Dr. Livingstone's health was not satisfactory, but this did not keep him from duty. "14_th October>_.--Went on 17th part way up to Murchison's Cataracts, and yesterday reached it. Very ill with bleeding from the bowels and purging. Bled all night. Got up at one A.M.

to take lat.i.tude."

At length, on 4th November, 1859, letters reached him from his family.

"A letter from Mrs. L. says we were blessed with a little daughter on 16th November, 1858, at Kuruman. A fine healthy child. The Lord bless and make her his own child in heart and life!" She had been nearly a year in the world before he heard of her existence.

CHAPTER XIII.

GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO.

A.D. 1860.

Down to Kongone--State of the ship--Further delay--Letter to Secretary of Universities Mission--Letter to Mr. Braithwaite--At Tette--Miss Whately's sugar-mill--With his brother and Kirk at Kebrabasa--Mode of traveling--Reappearence of old friends--African warfare and its effects--Desolation--A European colony desirable--Escape from rhinoceros--Rumors of Moffat--The Portuguese local Governors oppose Livingstone--He becomes unpopular with them--Letter to Mr. Young--Wants of the country--The Makololo--Approach home--Some are disappointed--News of the death of the London missionaries, the Helmores and others--Letter to Dr. Moffat--The Victoria Falls re-examined--Sekeletu ill of leprosy--Treatment and recovery--His disappointment at not seeing Mrs.

Livingstone--Efforts for the spiritual good of the Makololo--Careful observations in Natural History--The last of the "Ma-Robert"--Cheering prospect of the Universities Mission--Letter to Mr. Moore--to Mr.

Young--He wishes another ship--Letter to Sir Roderick Murchison on the rumored journey of Silva Porto.

It was necessary to go down to Kongone for the repair of the ship.

Livingstone was greatly disappointed with it, and thought the greed of the vendor had supplied him with a very inferior article for the price of a good one. He thus pours forth his vexation in writing to a friend: "Very grievous it is to be standing here tinkering when we might be doing good service to the cause of African civilization, and that on account of insatiable greediness. Burton may thank L. and B. that we are not at the other lakes before him. The loss of time greediness has inflicted on us has been frightful. My plan in this Expedition was excellent, but it did not include provisions against hypocrisy and fraud, which have sorely crippled us, and, indeed, ruined us, as a scientific Expedition."

Another delay was caused before they went inward, from their having to wait for a season suitable for hunting, as the party had to be kept in food. The mail from England had been lost, and they had the bitter disappointment of losing a year's correspondence from home. The following portions of a letter to the Secretary of the Committee for a Universities Mission gives a view of the situation at this time:

"RIVER ZAMBESI, 26_th Jan._, 1860.

"The defects we have unfortunately experienced in the 'Ma-Robert,' or rather the 'Asthmatic,' are so numerous that it would require a treatise as long as a lawyer's specification of any simple subject to give you any idea of them, and they have inflicted so much toil that a feeling of sickness comes over me when I advert to them.

"No one will ever believe the toil we have been put to in woodcutting. The quant.i.ty consumed is enormous, and we cannot get sufficient for speed into the furnace. It was only a dogged determination not to be beaten that carried me through.... But all will come out right at last. We are not alone, though truly we deserve not his presence. He encourages the trust that is granted by the word, 'I am with you, even unto the end of the world.'...

"It is impossible for you to conceive how backward everything is here, and the Portuguese are not to be depended upon; their establishments are only small penal settlements, and as no women are sent out, the state of morals is frightful. The only chance of success is away from them; nothing would prosper in their vicinity. After all, I am convinced that were Christianity not divine, it would be trampled out by its professors. Dr. Kirk, Mr. C. Livingstone, and Mr. Rae, with two English seamen, do well. We are now on our way up the river to the Makololo country, but must go overland from Kebrabasa, or in a whaler. We should be better able to plan our course if our letters had not been lost. We have never been idle, and do not mean to be. We have been trying to get the Portuguese Government to acknowledge free-trade on this river, and but for long delay in our letters the negotiation might have been far advanced. I hope Lord John Russell will help in this matter, and then we must have a small colony or missionary and mercantile settlement. If this our desire is granted, it is probable we shall have no cause to lament our long toil and detention here. My wife's letters, too, were lost, so I don't know how or where she is. Our separation, and the work I have been engaged in, were not contemplated, but they have led to our opening a path into the fine cotton-field in the North. You will see that the discoveries of Burton and Speke confirm mine respecting the form of the continent and its fertility. It is an immense field. I crave the honor of establishing a focus of Christianity in it, but should it not be granted, I will submit as most unworthy. I have written Mr. Venn twice, and from yours I see something is contemplated in Cambridge.... If young men come to this country, they must lay their account with doing everything for themselves. They must not expect to find influence at once, and all the countries near to the Portuguese have been greatly depopulated. We are now ascending this river without vegetables, and living on salt beef and pork. The slave-trade has done its work, for formerly all kinds of provisions could be procured at every point, and at the cheapest rate. We cannot get anything for either love or money, in a country the fertility of which is truly astonishing.

A few more general topics are touched on in a letter to Mr. Braithwaite:

"I am sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Sturge. He wrote me a long letter on the 'Peace principle,' and before I could study it carefully, it was mislaid. I wrote him from Tette, as I did not wish him to suppose I neglected him, and mentioned the murder of the six Makololo and other things, as difficulties in the way of adopting his views, as they were perfectly unarmed, and there was no feud between the tribes.

I fear that my letter may not have reached him alive. The departure of Sir Fowell Buxton and others is very unexpected.

Sorry to see the loss of Dr. Bowen, of Sierra Leone--a good man and a true. But there is One who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and to carry on his own work. A terrible war that was in Italy, and the peace engenders more uneasy forebodings than any peace ever heard of. It is well that G.o.d and not the devil reigns, and will bring his own purposes to pa.s.s, right through the midst of the wars and pa.s.sions of men. Have you any knowledge of a famous despatch written by Sir George Grey (late of the Cape), on the proper treatment of native tribes? I wish to study it.

"Tell your children that if I could get hold of a hippopotamus I would eat it rather than allow it to eat me.

We see them often, but before we get near enough to get a shot they dive down, and remain hidden till we are past. As for lions, we never see them, sometimes hear a roar or two, but that is all, and I go on the plan put forth by a little girl in Scotland who saw a cow coming to her in a meadow, 'O boo! boo! you no hurt me, I no hurt you.'"

At Tette one of his occupations was to fit up a sugar-mill, the gift of Miss Whately, of Dublin, and some friends. To that lady he writes a long letter of nineteen pages. He tells her he had just put up her beautiful sugar-mill, to show the natives what could be done by machinery. Then he adverts to the wonderful freedom from sickness that his party had enjoyed in the delta of the Zambesi, and proceeds to give an account of the Shire Valley and its people. He finds ground for a favorable contrast between the Shire natives and the Tette Portuguese:

"They (the natives) have fences made to guard the women from the alligators, all along the Shire: at Tette they have none, and two women were taken past our vessel in the mouths of these horrid brutes. The number of women taken is so great as to make the Portuguese swear every time they speak of them, and yet, when I proposed to the priest to make a collection for a fence, and offered twenty dollars, he only smiled. You Protestants don't know all the good you do by keeping our friends of the only true and infallible Church up to their duty. Here, and in Angola, we see how it is, when they are not provoked--if not to love, to good works....

"On telling the Makololo that the sugar-mill had been sent to Sekeletu by a lady, who collected a sum among other ladies to buy it, they replied, 'O na le pelu'--she has a heart. I was very proud of it, and so were they.

"... With reference to the future, I am trying to do what I did before--obey the injunction, 'Commit thy way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pa.s.s.' And I hope that He will make some use of me. My attention is now directed specially to the fact that there is no country better adapted for producing the raw materials of English manufactures than this....

"See to what a length I have run. I have become palaverist. I beg you to present my respectful salutation to the Archbishop and Mrs. Whately, and should you meet any of the kind contributors, say how thankful I am to them all."

From Tette he writes to Sir Roderick Murchison, 7th February, 1860, urging his plan for a steamer on Lake Nya.s.sa: "If Government furnishes the means, all right; if not, I shall spend my book-money on it. I don't need to touch the children's fund, and mine could not be better spent.

People who are born rich sometimes become miserable from a fear of becoming poor; but I have the advantage, you see, in not being afraid to die poor. If I live, I must succeed in what I have undertaken; death alone will put a stop to my efforts."

A month after he writes to the same friend, from Kongone, 10th March, 1860, that he is sending Rae home for a vessel:

"I tell Lord John Russell that he (Rae) may thereby do us more service than he can now do in a worn-out steamer, with 35 patches, covering at least 100 holes. I say to his Lordship, that after we have, by patient investigation and experiment, at the risk of life, rendered the fever not more formidable than a common cold; found access, from a good harbor on the coast, to the main stream; and discovered a pathway into the magnificent Highland lake region, which promises so fairly for our commerce in cotton, and for our policy in suppressing the trade in slaves, I earnestly hope that he will crown our efforts by securing our free pa.s.sage through those parts of the Zambesi and Shire of which the Portuguese make no use, and by enabling us to introduce civilization in a manner which will extend the honor and influence of the English name."

In his communications with the Government at home, Livingstone never failed to urge the importance of their securing the free navigation of the Zambesi. The Portuguese on the river were now beginning to get an inkling of his drift, and to feel indignant at any countenance he was receiving from their own Government.

Pa.s.sing up the Zambesi with Charles Livingstone, Dr. Kirk, and such of the Makololo as were willing to go home, Dr. Livingstone took a new look at Kebrabasa, from a different point, still believing that in flood it would allow a steamer to pa.s.s. Of his mode of traveling we have some pleasant glimpses. He always tried to make progress more a pleasure than a toil, and found that kindly consideration for the feelings even of blacks, the pleasure of observing scenery and everything new, as one moves on at an ordinary pace, and the partic.i.p.ation in the most delightful rest with his fellows, made traveling delightful. He was gratified to find that he was as able for the fatigue as the natives.

Even the headman, who carried little more than he did himself, and never, like him, hunted in the afternoon, was not equal to him. The hunting was no small addition to the toil; the tired hunter was often tempted to give it up, after bringing what would have been only sufficient for the three whites, and leave the rest, thus sending "the idle, ungrateful poor" supperless to bed. But this was not his way. The blacks were thought of in hunting as well as the whites. "It is only by continuance in well-doing," he says, "even to the length of what the worldly-wise call weakness, that the conviction is produced anywhere, that our motives are high enough to secure sincere respect."

As they proceeded, some of his old acquaintances reappeared, notably Mpende, who had given him such a threatening reception, but had now learned that he belonged to a tribe "that loved the black man and did not make slaves." A chief named Pangola appeared, at first tipsy and talkative, demanding a rifle, and next morning, just as they were beginning divine service, reappeared sober to press his request. Among the Baenda-Pezi, or Go-Nakeds, whose only clothing is a coat of red ochre, a n.o.ble specimen of the race appeared in full dress, consisting of a long tobacco-pipe, and brought a handsome present.

The country bore the usual traces of the results of African warfare. At times a clever chief stands up, who brings large tracts under his dominion; at his death his empire dissolves, and a fresh series of desolating wars ensues. In one region which was once studded with villages, they walked a whole week without meeting any one. A European colony, he was sure, would be invaluable for constraining the tribes to live in peace. "Thousands of industrious natives would gladly settle round it, and engage in that peaceful pursuit of agriculture and trade of which they are so fond, and, undistracted by wars and rumors of wars, might listen to the purifying and enn.o.bling truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ." At Zumbo, the most picturesque site in the country, they saw the ruins of Jesuit missions, reminding them that there men once met to utter the magnificent words, "Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ!" but without leaving one permanent trace of their labors in the belief and worship of the people.

Wherever they go, Dr. Livingstone has his eye on the trees and plants and fruits of the region, with a view to commerce; while he is no less interested to watch the treatment of fever, when cases occur, and greatly gratified that Dr. Kirk, who had been trying a variety of medicines on himself, made rapid recovery when he took Dr. Livingstone's pills. He used to say if he had followed Morison, and set up as pill-maker, he might have made his fortune. Pa.s.sing through the Bazizulu he had an escape from a rhinoceros, as remarkable though not quite as romantic as his escape from the lion; the animal came dashing at him, and suddenly, for some unknown reason, stopped when close to him, and gave him time to escape, as if it had been struck by his color, and doubtful if hunting a white man would be good sport.

At a month's distance from Mosilikatse, they heard a report that the missionaries had been there, that they had told the chief that it was wrong to kill men, and that the chief had said he was born to kill people, but would drop the practice--an interesting testimony to the power of Mr. Moffat's words. Everywhere the Makololo proclaimed that they were the friends of peace, and their course was like a triumphal procession, the people of the villages loading them with presents.

But a new revelation came to Dr. Livingstone. Though the Portuguese Government had given public orders that he was to be aided in every possible way, it was evident that private instructions had come, which, unintentionally perhaps, certainly produced the opposite effects. The Portuguese who were engaged in the slave-trade were far too much devoted to it ever to encourage an enterprise that aimed at extirpating it.

Indeed, it became painfully apparent to Dr. Livingstone that the effect of his opening up the Zambesi had been to afford the Portuguese traders new facilities for conducting their unhallowed traffic; and had it not been for his promise to bring back the Makololo, he would now have abandoned the Zambesi and tried the Rovuma, as a way of reaching Nya.s.sa.