The Personal Life of David Livingstone Part 26

Before publishing his book, Dr. Livingstone had asked Sir Roderick Murchison's advice as to the wisdom of speaking his mind on two somewhat delicate points. In reply, Sir Roderick wrote: "If you think you have been too hard as to the Bishop or the Portuguese, you can modify the phrases. But I think that the truth ought to be known, if only in vindication of your own conduct, and to account for the little success attending your last mission."

We continue our extracts from his Journal:

"_26th April_, 1865.--In London. Horrified by news of President Lincoln's a.s.sa.s.sination, and the attempt to murder Seward."

"_29th April_.--Went down to Crystal Palace, with Agnes, to a Sat.u.r.day Concert. The music very fine. Met Waller, and lost a train. Came up in hot haste to the dinner of the Royal Academy.... Sir Charles Eastlake, President; Archbishops of Canterbury and York on each side of the chair; all the Ministers present, except Lord Palmerston, who is ill of gout in the hand. Lord Russell, Lord Granville, and Duke of Somerset sat on other side of table from Sir Henry Holland, Sir Roderick, and myself. Lord Clarendon was close enough to lean back and clap me on the shoulder, and ask me when I was going out. Duke of Argyll, Bishops of Oxford and London, were within earshot; Sir J. Romilly, the Master of the Rolls, was directly in front, on the other side of our table. He said that he watched all my movements with great interest.... Lord Derby made a good speech. The speeches were much above the average. I was not told that I was expected to speak till I got in, and this prevented my eating. When Lord John Manners complimented me after my speech, I mentioned the effect the antic.i.p.ation had on me. To comfort me he said that the late Sir Robert Peel never enjoyed a dinner in these circ.u.mstances, but sat crumbling up his bread till it became quite a heap on the table.... My speech was not reported."

"_2d May_.--Met Mr. Elwin, formerly editor of the _Quarterly_. He said that Forster, one of our first-cla.s.s writers, had told him that the most characteristic speech was not reported, and mentioned the heads--as, the slave-trade being of the same nature as thuggee, garrotting; the tribute I paid to our statesmen; and the way that Africans have been drawn, pointing to a picture of a woman spinning. This non-reporting was much commented on, which might, if I needed it, prove a solace to my wounded vanity. But I did not feel offended. Everything good for me will be given, and I take all as a little child from its father.

"Heard a capital sermon from Dr. Hamilton [Regent Square Church], on President Lincoln's a.s.sa.s.sination. 'It is impossible but that offenses will come,' etc. He read part of the President's address at second inauguration. In the light of subsequent events it is grand. If every drop of blood shed by the lash must be atoned for by an equal number of white men's vital fluid,--righteous, O Lord, are Thy judgments! The a.s.sa.s.sination has awakened universal sympathy and indignation, and will lead to more cordiality between the countries. The Queen has written an autograph letter to Mrs.

Lincoln, and Lords and Commons have presented addresses to Her Majesty, praying her to convey their sentiments of horror at the fearful crime."

"_18th May,_ 1865.--Was examined by the Committee [of the House of Commons] on the West Coast; was rather nervous and confused, but let them know pretty plainly that I did not agree with the aspersions cast on missions."

In a letter to Mr. Webb, he writes _a propos_ of this examination:

"The monstrous mistake of the Burton school is this: they ignore the point-blank fact that the men that do the most for the mean whites are the same that do the most for the mean blacks, and you never hear one mother's son of them say, You do wrong to give to the whites. I told the Committee I had heard people say that Christianity made the blacks worse, but did not agree with them. I might have said it was 'rot,' and truly. I can stand a good deal of bosh, but to tell me that Christianity makes people worse--ugh! Tell that to the young trouts. You know on what side I am, and I shall stand to my side, Old Pam fashion, through thick and thin. I don't agree with all my side say and do. I won't justify many things, but for the great cause of human progress I am heart and soul, _and so are you_."

Dr. Livingstone was asked at this time to attend a public meeting on behalf of American freedom. It was not in his power to go, but, in apologizing, he was at pains to express his opinion on the capacity of the negro, in connection with what was going on in the United States:

"Our kinsmen across the Atlantic deserve our warmest sympathy. They have pa.s.sed, and are pa.s.sing, through trials, and are encompa.s.sed with difficulties which completely dwarf those of our Irish famine, and not the least of them is the question, what to do with those freedmen for whose existence as slaves in America our own forefathers have so much to answer. The introduction of a degraded race from a barbarous country was a gigantic evil, and if the race cannot be elevated, an evil beyond remedy. Millions can neither be amalgamated nor transported, and the presence of degradation is a contagion which propagates itself among the more civilized. But I have no fears as to the mental and moral capacity of the Africans for civilization and upward progress. We who suppose ourselves to have vaulted at one bound to the extreme of civilization, and smack our lips so loudly over our high elevation, may find it difficult to realize the debas.e.m.e.nt to which slavery has sunk those men, or to appreciate what, in the discipline of the sad school of bondage, is in a state of freedom real and substantial progress. But I, who have been intimate with Africans who have never been defiled by the slave-trade, believe them to be capable of holding an honorable rank in the family of man."

Wherever slavery prevailed, or the effects of slavery were found, Dr.

Livingstone's testimony against it was clear and emphatic. Neither personal friendship nor any other consideration under the sun could repress it. When his friends Sir Roderick and Mr. Webb afterward expressed their sympathy with Governor Eyre, of Jamaica, he did not scruple to tell them how different an estimate he had formed of the Governor's conduct.

We continue our extracts from his Journal and letters:

_24th May._--Came down to Scotland by last night's train; found mother very poorly; and, being now eighty-two, I fear she may not have long to live among us."

_27th May_ (to Mr. Webb)--"I have been reading _Tom Brown's School Days_--a capital book. Dr. Arnold was a man worth his weight in something better than gold. You know Oswell" [his early friend] "was one of his Rugby boys. One could see his training in always doing what was brave and true and right."

"_2d June._--Tom better, but kept back in his education by his complaint. Oswell getting on well at school at Hamilton.

Anna Mary well. Mother gradually becoming weaker. Robert we shall never hear of again in this world, I fear; but the Lord is merciful and just and right in all his ways. He would hear the cry for mercy in the hospital at Salisbury. I have lost my part in that gigantic struggle which the Highest guided to a consummation never contemplated by the Southerners when they began; and many other have borne more numerous losses."

"_5th June_.--Went about a tombstone for my dear Mary. Got a good one of cast-iron to be sent out to the Cape.

"Mother very low.... Has been a good affectionate mother to us all. The Lord be with her.... Whatever is good for me and mine the Lord will give.

"To-morrow, Communion in kirk. The Lord strip off all imperfections, wash away all guilt, breathe love and goodness through all my nature, and make his image shine out from my soul.

"Mother continued very low, and her mind ran on poor Robert.

Thought I was his brother, and asked me frequently, 'Where is your brother? where is that puir laddie?'... Sisters most attentive.... Contrary to expectation she revived, and I went to Oxford. The Vice-Chancellor offered me the theatre to lecture in, but I expected a telegram if any change took place on mother. Gave an address to a number of friends in Dr. Daubeny's chemical cla.s.s-room."

"_Monday, 19th June_.--A telegram came, saying that mother had died the day before. I started at once for Scotland. No change was observed till within an hour and a half of her departure.... Seeing the end was near, sister Agnes said, 'The Saviour has come for you, mother. You can "lippen"

yourself to him?' She replied, 'Oh yes.' Little Anna Mary was help up to her. She gave her the last look, and said 'Bonnie wee la.s.sie,' gave a few long inspirations, and all was still, with a look of reverence on her countenance. She had wished William Logan, a good Christian man, to lay her head in the grave, if I were not there. When going away in 1858, she said to me that she would have liked one of her laddies to lay her head in the grave. It so happened that I was there to pay the last tribute to a dear good mother."

The last thing we find him doing in Scotland is attending the examination of Oswell's school, with Anna Mary, and seeing him receive prizes. Dr. London, of Hamilton, the medical attendant and much-valued friend of the Livingstones, furnishes us with a reminiscence of this occasion. He had great difficulty in persuading Livingstone to go. The awful bugbear was that he would be asked to make a speech. Being a.s.sured that it would be thought strange if, in a gathering of the children's parents, he were absent, he agreed to go. And of course he had to speak.

What he said was pointed and practical, and in winding up, he said he had just two things to say to them--"FEAR G.o.d, AND WORK HARD." These appear to have been Livingstone's last public words in his native Scotland.

His Journal is continued in London:

"8_th August_.--Went to Zoological Gardens with Mr. Webb and Dr. Kirk; then to lunch with Miss Coutts" [Baroness Burdett Coutts]. "Queen Emma of Honolulu is to be there. It is not fair for High Church people to ignore the labors of the Americans, for [the present state of Christianity] is the fruit of their labors, and not of the present Bishop. Dined at Lady Franklin's with Queen Emma; a nice, sensible person the Queen seems to be.

"9_th August_.--Parted with my friends Mr. and Mrs. Webb at King's Cross station to-day. He gracefully said that he wished I had been coming rather than going away, and she shook me very cordially with both hands, and said, 'You will come back again to us, won't you?' and shed a womanly tear.

The good Lord bless and save them both, and have mercy on their whole household!"

"11_th August_.--Went down to say good-bye to the d.u.c.h.ess-Dowager of Sutherland, at Maidenhead. Garibaldi's rooms are shown; a good man he was, but followed by a crowd of harpies who tried to use him for their own purposes.... He was so utterly worn out by shaking hands, that a detective policeman who was with him in the carriage, put his hand under his cloak, and did the ceremony for him.

"Took leave at Foreign Office. Mr. Layard very kind in his expressions at parting, and so was Mr. Wylde.

"12_th August_.--"Went down to Wimbledon to dine with Mr.

Murray, and take leave. Mr. and Mrs. Oswell came up to say farewell. He offers to go over to Paris at any time to bring Agnes" [who was going to school there] "home, or do anything that a father would. ["I love him," Livingstone writes to Mr.

Webb, "with true affection, and I believe he does the same to me; and yet we never show it."]

"We have been with Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton for some time--good, gracious people. The Lord bless them and their household! Dr.

Kirk and Mr. Waller go down to Folkestone to-morrow, and take leave of us there. This is very kind. The Lord puts it into their hearts to show kindness, and blessed be his name."

Dr. Livingstone's last weeks in England were pa.s.sed under the roof of the late Rev. Dr. Hamilton, author of _Life in Earnest_, and could hardly have been pa.s.sed in a more congenial home. Natives of the same part of Scotland, nearly of an age, and resembling each other much in taste and character, the two men drew greatly to each other. The same Puritan faith lay at the basis of their religious character, with all its stability and firmness. But above all, they had put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. In Natural History, too, they had an equal enthusiasm. In Dr. Hamilton, Livingstone found what he missed in many orthodox men. On the evening of his last Sunday, he was prevailed on to give an address in Dr. Hamilton's church, after having in the morning received the Communion with the congregation. In his address he vindicated his character as a missionary, and declared that it was as much as ever his great object to proclaim the love of Christ, which they had been commemorating that day. His prayers made a deep impression; they were like the communings of a child with his father. At the railway station, the last Scotch hands grasped by him were those of Dr. and Mrs.

Hamilton. The news of Dr. Hamilton's death was received by Livingstone a few years after, in the heart of Africa, with no small emotion. Their next meeting was in the better land.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FROM ENGLAND TO BOMBAY AND ZANZIBAR.

A.D. 1865-1866.

Object of new journey--Double scheme--He goes to Paris with Agnes--Baron Hausmann--Anecdote at Ma.r.s.eilles--He reaches Bombay--Letter to Agnes--Reminiscences of Dr. Livingstone at Bombay by Rev. D.C. Boyd--by Alex. Brown, Esq.--Livingstone's dress--He visits the caves of Kenhari--Rumors of murder of Baron van der Decken--He delivers a lecture at Bombay--Great success--He sells the "Lady Nya.s.sa"--Letter to Mr.

Young--Letter to Anna Mary--Hears that Dr. Kirk has got an appointment--Sets out for Zanzibar in "Thule"--Letter to Mr. Young--His experience at sea--Letter to Agnes--He reaches Zanzibar--Calls on Sultan--Presents the "Thule" to him from Bombay Government--Monotony of Zanzibar life--Leaves in "Penguin" for the continent.

The object for which Dr. Livingstone set out on his third and last great African journey is thus stated in the preface to _The Zambesi and its Tributaries:_ "Our Government have supported the proposal of the Royal Geographical Society made by my friend Sir Roderick Murchison, and have united with that body to aid me in another attempt to open Africa to civilizing influences, and a valued private friend has given a thousand pounds for the same object. I propose to go inland, north of the territory which the Portuguese in Europe claim, and endeavor to commence that system on the East which has been so eminently successful on the West Coast: a system combining the repressive efforts of Her Majesty's cruisers with lawful trade and Christian missions--the moral and material results of which have been so gratifying. I hope to ascend the Rovuma, or some other river north of Cape Delgado, and, in addition to my other work, shall strive, by pa.s.sing along the northern end of Lake Nya.s.sa, and round the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that part of Africa."

The first part of the scheme was his own, the second he had been urged to undertake by the Geographical Society. The sums in aid contributed by Government and the Geographical society were only 500 each; but it was not thought that the work would occupy a long time. The Geographical Society coupled their contribution with some instructions as to observations and reports which seemed to Dr. Livingstone needlessly stringent, and which certainly ruffled his relation to the Society. The honorary position of Consul at large he was willing to accept for the sake of the influence which it gave him, though still retaining his opinion of the shabbiness which had so explicitly bargained that he was to have no salary and to expect no pension.

The truth is, if Livingstone had not been the most single-minded and trustful of men, he would never have returned to Africa on such terms.

The whole sum placed at his disposal was utterly inadequate to defray the cost of the Expedition, and support his family at home. Had it not been for promises that were never fulfilled, he would not have left his family at this time as he did. But in nothing is the purity of his character seen more beautifully than in his bearing toward some of those who had gained not a little consideration by their connection with him, and had made him fair promises, but left him to work on as best he might. No trace of bitter feeling disturbed him or abated the strength of his love and confidence.

Dr Livingston went first to Paris with his daughter, and left her there for education. Pa.s.sing on he reached Ma.r.s.eilles on the 19th August, and wrote her a few lines, in which he informed her that the man who was now transforming Paris [Baron Hausmann] was a Protestant, and had once taught a Sunday-school in the south of France; and that probably he had greater pleasure in the first than in the second work. The remark had a certain applicability to his own case, and probably let out a little of his own feeling; it showed at least his estimate of the relative place of temporal and spiritual philanthropy. The prayer that followed was expressive of his deepest feelings toward his best-beloved on earth: "May the Almighty qualify you to be a blessing to those around you, wherever your lot is cast. I know that you hate all that is mean and false. May G.o.d make you good, and to delight in doing good to others. If you ask He will give abundantly. The Lord bless you!"

From a Bombay gentleman who was his fellow-traveler to India a little anecdote has casually come to our knowledge ill.u.s.trating the un.o.btrusiveness of Livingstone--his dislike to be made a lion of. At the _table-d'hote_ of the hotel in Ma.r.s.eilles, where some Bombay merchants were sitting, the conversation turned on Africa in connection with ivory--an extensive article of trade in Bombay. One friend dropped the remark, "I wonder where that old chap Livingstone is now." To his surprise and discomfiture, a voice replied, "Here he is." They were fast friends all through the voyage that followed. Little of much interest happened during that voyage. Livingstone writes that Palgrave was in Cairo when he pa.s.sed through, but he did not see him. Of Baker he could hear nothing. Miss Tinne, the Dutch lady, of whom he thought highly as a traveler, had not been very satisfactory to the religious part of the English community at Cairo. Miss Whately was going home for six weeks, but was to be back to her Egyptian Ragged School. He saw the end of the Lesseps Ca.n.a.l, about the partial opening of which they were making a great noise. Many thought it would succeed, though an Egyptian Commodore had said to him, "It is hombog." The Red Sea was fearfully hot and steamy. The "Lady Nya.s.sa" hung like a millstone around his neck, and he was prepared to sell her for whatever she might bring. Bombay was reached on 11th September.

TO AGNES LIVINGSTONE.

"_Bombay, 20th Sept_., 1865.--... By advice of the Governor, I went up to Na.s.sick to see if the Africans there under Government instruction would suit my purpose as members of the Expedition. I was present at the examination of a large school under Mr. Price by the Bishop of Bombay. It is partly supported by Government. The pupils (108) are not exclusively African, but all showed very great proficiency. They excelled in music. I found some of the Africans to have come from parts I know--one from Ndonde on the Rovuma--and all had learned some handicraft, besides reading, writing, etc., and it is probable that some of them will go back to their own country with me. Eight have since volunteered to go. Besides these I am to get some men from the 'Marine Battalion,' who have been accustomed to rough it in various ways, and their pensions will be given to their widows if they should die.

The Governor (Sir Bartle Frere) is going to do what he can for my success.