LAST TWO YEARS OF THE EXPEDITION.
A.D. 1862-1863.
Livingstone again buckles on his armor--Letter to Waller--Launch of
"Lady Nyassa"--Too late for season--He explores the Rovuma--Fresh
activity of the slave-trade--Letter to Governor of Mozambique about his
discoveries--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--Generous offer of a party of
Scotchmen--The Expedition proceeds up Zambesi with "Lady Nyassa" in
tow--Appalling desolations of Marianne--Tidings of the Mission--Death of
Scudamore--of Dickenson--of Thornton--Illness of Livingstone--Dr. Kirk
and Charles Livingstone go home--He proceeds northward with Mr. Rae and
Mr. E.D. Young of the "Gorgon"--Attempt to carry a boat over the
rapids--Defeated--Recall of the Expedition--Livingstone's views--Letter
to Mr. James Young--to Mr. Waller--Feeling of the Portuguese
Government--Offer to the Rev. Dr. Stewart--Great discouragements--Why
did he not go home?--Proceeds to explore Nyassa--Risks and
sufferings--Occupation of his mind--Natural History--Obliged to turn
back--More desolation--Report of his murder--Kindness of
Chinsamba--Reaches the ship--Letter from Bishop Tozer, abandoning the
Mission--Distress of Livingstone--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--Progress
of Dr. Stewart--Livingstonia--Livingstone takes charge of the children
of the Universities Mission--Letter to his daughter--Retrospect--The
work of the Expedition--Livingstone's plans for the future.
It could not have been easy for Livingstone to buckle on his armor anew.
How he was able to do it at all may be inferred from some words of cheer
written by him at the time to his friend Mr. Waller: "Thanks for your
kind sympathy. In return, I say, Cherish exalted thoughts of the great
work you have undertaken. It is a work which, if faithful, you will look
back on with satisfaction while the eternal ages roll on their
everlasting course. The devil will do all he can to hinder you by
efforts from without and from within; but remember Him who is with you,
and will be with you alway."
As soon as he was able to brace himself, he was again at his post,
helping to put the "Lady Nyassa" together and launch her. This was
achieved by the end of June, greatly to the wonder of the natives, who
could not understand how iron should swim. The "Nyassa" was an excellent
steamboat, and could she have been got to the lake would have done well.
But, alas! the rainy season had passed, and until December this could
not be done. Here was another great disappointment. Meanwhile, Dr.
Livingstone resolved to renew the exploration of the Rovuma, in the hope
of finding a way to Nyassa beyond the dominion of the Portuguese. This
was the work in which he had been engaged at the time when he went with
Bishop Mackenzie to help him to settle.
The voyage up the Rovuma did not lead to much. On one occasion they were
attacked, fiercely and treacherously, by the natives. Cataracts occurred
about 156 miles from the mouth, and the report was that farther up they
were worse. The explorers did not venture beyond the banks of the
rivers, but so far as they saw, the people were industrious, and the
country fertile, and a steamer of light draft might carry on a very
profitable trade among them. But there was no water-way to Nyassa. The
Rovuma came from mountains to the west, having only a very minute
connection with Nyassa. It seemed that it would be better in the
meantime to reach the lake by the Zambesi and the Shiré, so the party
returned. It was not till the beginning of 1863 that they were able to
renew the ascent of these rivers. Livingstone writes touchingly to Sir
Roderick, in reference to his returning to the Zambesi: "It may seem to
some persons weak to feel a chord vibrating to the dust of her who rests
on the banks of the Zambesi, and think that the path by that river is
consecrated by her remains."
Meanwhile, Dr. Livingstone was busy with his pen. A new energy had been
imparted to him by the appalling facts now fully apparent, that his
discoveries had only stimulated the activity of the slave-traders, that
the Portuguese local authorities really promoted slave-trading, with its
inevitable concomitant slave-hunting, and that the horror and desolation
to which the country bore such frightful testimony was the result. It
seemed as if the duel he had fought with the Boers when they determined
to close Africa, and he determined to open it, had now to be repeated
with the Portuguese. The attention of Dr. Livingstone is more and more
concentrated on this terrible topic. Dr. Kirk writes to him that when at
Tette he had heard that the Portuguese Governor-General at Mozambique
had instructed his brother, the Governor of that town, to act on the
principle that the slave-trade, though prohibited on the ocean, was
still lawful on the land, and that any persons interfering with
slave-traders, by liberating their slaves, would be counted robbers. An
energetic despatch to Earl Russell, then Foreign Secretary, calls
attention to this outrage.
A few days after, a strong but polite letter is sent to the Governor of
Tette, calling attention to the forays of a man named Belshore, in the
Chibisa country, and entreating him to stop them. About the same time he
writes to the Governor-General of Mozambique in reply to a paper by the
Viscount de Sa da Bandeira, published in the Almanac by the Government
press, in which the common charge was made against him of arrogating to
himself the glory of discoveries which belonged to Senhor Candido and
other Portuguese. He affirms that before publishing his book he examined
all Portuguese books of travels he could find; that he had actually
shown Senhor Candido to have been a discoverer before any Portuguese
hinted that he was such; that the lake which Candido spoke of as
northwest of Tette could not be Nyassa, which was northeast of it; that
he did full justice to all the Portuguese explorers, and that what he
claimed as own discoveries were certainly not the discoveries of the
Portuguese. A few days after, he writes to Mr. Layard, then our
Portuguese Minister, and comments on the map published by the Viscount
as representing Portuguese geography,--pointing out such blunders as
that which made the Zambesi enter the sea at Quilimane, proving that by
their map the Portuguese claimed territory that was certainly not
theirs; adverting to their utter ignorance of the Victoria Falls, the
most remarkable phenomenon in Africa; affirming that many so-called
discoveries were mere vague rumors, heard by travelers; and showing the
use that had been made of his own maps, the names being changed to suit
the Portuguese orthography.
Livingstone had the satisfaction of knowing that his account of the trip
to Lake Nyassa had excited much interest in the Cabinet at home, and
that a strong remonstrance had been addressed to the Portuguese
Government against slave-hunting. But it does not appear that this led
to any improvement at the time.
While stung into more than ordinary energy by the atrocious deeds he
witnessed around him, Livingstone was living near the borders of the
unseen world. He writes to Sir Thomas Maclear on the 27th October, 1862:
"I suppose that I shall die in these uplands, and somebody
will carry, out the plan I have longed to put into practice.
I have been thinking a great deal since the departure of my
beloved one about the regions whither she has gone, and
imagine from the manner the Bible describes it we have got
too much monkery in our ideas. There will be work there as
well as here, and possibly not such a vast difference in our
being as is expected. But a short time there will give more
insight than a thousand musings. We shall see Him by whose
inexpressible love and mercy we get there, and all whom we
loved, and all the lovable. I can sympathize with you now
more fully than I did before. I work with as much vigor as I
can; and mean to do so till the change comes; but his
prospect of a home is all dispelled."
In one of his despatches to Lord Russell, Livingstone reports an offer
that had been made by a party consisting of an Englishman and five
Scotch working men at the Cape, which must have been extremely
gratifying to him, and served to deepen his conviction that sooner or
later his plan of colonization would certainly be carried into effect.
The leader of the party, John Jehan, formerly of the London City
Mission, in reading Dr. Livingstone's book, became convinced that if a
few mechanics could be induced to take a journey of exploration it would
prove very useful. His views being communicated to five other young men
(two masons, two carpenters, one smith), they formed themselves into a
company in July, 1861, and had been working together, throwing their
earnings into a common fund, and now they had arms, two wagons, two
spans of oxen, and means of procuring outfits. In September, 1862, they
were ready to start from Aliwal in South Africa[66].
[Footnote 66: The recall of Livingstone's Expedition and the removal of
the Universities Mission seem to have knocked this most promising scheme
on the head. Writing of it to Sir Roderick Murchison on the 14th
December, 1862, he says: "I like the Scotchmen, and think them much
better adapted for our plans than those on whom the Universities Mission
has lighted. If employed as I shall wish them to be in trade, and
setting an example of industry in cotton or coffee planting, I think
they are just the men I need brought to my band. Don't you think this
sensible?"]
After going to Johanna for provisions, and to discharge the crew of
Johanna men whose term of service had expired, the Expedition returned
to Tette. On the 10th January, 1863, they steamed off with the "Lady
Nyassa" in tow. The desolation that had been caused by Marianno, the
Portuguese slave-agent, was heart-breaking. Corpses floated past them.
In the morning the paddles had to be cleared of corpses caught by the
floats during the night. Livingstone summed up his impressions in one
terrible sentence:
"Wherever we took a walk, human skeletons were seen in every direction,
and it was painfully interesting to observe the different postures in
which the poor wretches had breathed their last. A whole heap had been
thrown down a slope behind a village, where the fugitives often crossed
the river from the east; and in one hut of the same village no fewer
than twenty drums had been collected, probably the ferryman's fees. Many
had ended their misery under shady trees, others under projecting crags
in the hills, while others lay in their huts with closed doors, which
when opened disclosed the mouldering corpse with the poor rags round the
loins, the skull fallen off the pillow, the little skeleton of the
child, that had perished first, rolled up in a mat between two large
skeletons. The sight of this desert, but eighteen months ago a
well-peopled valley, now literally strewn with human bones, forced the
conviction upon us that the destruction of human life in the middle
passage, however great, constitutes but a small portion of the waste,
and made us feel that unless the slave-trade--that monster iniquity
which has so long brooded over Africa--is put down, lawful commerce
cannot be established."
In passing up, Livingstone's heart was saddened as he visited the
Bishop's grave, and still more by the tidings which he got of the
Mission, which had now removed from Magomero to the low lands of
Chibisa. Some time before, Mr. Scudamore, a man greatly beloved, had
succumbed, and now Mr. Dickenson was added to the number of victims. Mr.
Thornton, too, who left the Expedition in 1859, but returned to it, died
under an attack of fever, consequent on too violent exertion undertaken
in order to be of service to the Mission party. Dr. Kirk and Mr. C.
Livingstone were so much reduced by illness that it was deemed necessary
for them to return to England. Livingstone himself had a most serious
attack of fever, which lasted all the month of May, Dr. Kirk remaining
with him till he got over it. When his brother and Dr. Kirk left, the
only Europeans remaining with him were Mr. Rae, the ship's engineer,
and Mr. Edward D. Young, formerly of the "Gorgon," who had volunteered
to join the Expedition, and whose after services, both in the search for
Livingstone and in establishing the mission of Livingstonia, were so
valuable. On the noble spirit shown by Livingstone in remaining in the
country after all his early companions had left, and amid such appalling
scenes as everywhere met him, we do not need to dwell.
Here are glimpses of the inner heart of Livingstone about this time:
"1_st March_, 1863.--I feel very often that I have not long
to live, and say, 'My dear children, I leave you. Be manly
Christians, and never do a mean thing. Be honest to men, and
to the Almighty One.'"
"10_th April_.--Reached the Cataracts. Very thankful indeed
after our three months' toil from Shupanga."
"27_th April_.--On this day twelvemonths my beloved Mary
Moffat was removed from me by death.
"'If I can, I'll come again, mother, from out my resting-place;
Though you'll not see me, mother, I shall look upon your face;
Though I cannot speak a word, I shall hearken what you say,
And be often, often with you when you think I'm far away.'
"TENNYSON."
The "Lady Nyassa" being taken to pieces, the party began to construct a
road over the thirty-five or forty miles of the rapids, in order to
convey the steamer to the lake. After a few miles of the road had been
completed, it was thought desirable to ascertain whether the boat left
near the lake two years before was fit for service, so as to avoid the
necessity of carrying another boat past the rapids. On reaching it the
boat was found to have been burnt. The party therefore returned to carry
up another. They had got to the very last rapid, and had placed the boat
for a short space in the water, when, through the carelessness of five
Zambesi men, she was overturned, and away she went like an arrow down
the rapids. To keep calm under such a crowning disappointment must have
I taxed Livingstone's self-control to the very utmost.
It was now that he received a despatch from Earl Russell intimating
that the Expedition was recalled. This, though a great disappointment,
was not altogether a surprise. On the 24th April he had written to Mr.
Waller "I should not wonder in the least to be recalled, for should the
Portuguese persist in keeping the rivers shut, there would be no use in
trying to develop trade," He states his views on the recall calmly in a
letter to Mr. James Young:
"_Murchison Cataracts_, 3_d July_, 1863.--... Got
instructions for our recall yesterday, at which I do not
wonder. The Government has behaved well to us throughout, and
I feel abundantly thankful to H.M.'s ministers for enabling
me so far to carry on the experiment of turning the
industrial and trading propensities of the natives to good
account, with a view of thereby eradicating the trade in
slaves. But the Portuguese dogged our footsteps, and, as is
generally understood, with the approbation of their Home
Government, neutralized our labors. Not that the Portuguese
statesmen approved of slaving, but being enormously jealous
lest their pretended dominion from sea to sea and elsewhere
should in the least degree, now or any future time, become
aught else than a slave 'preserve,' the Governors have been
instructed, and have carried out their instructions further
than their employers intended. Major Sicard was removed from
Tette as too friendly, and his successor had emmissaries in
the Ajawa camp. Well, he saw their policy, and regretted that
they should be allowed to follow us into perfectly new
regions. The regret was the more poignant, inasmuch as but
for our entering in by gentleness, they durst not have gone.
No Portuguese dared, for instance, to come up this Shiré
Valley; but after our dispelling the fear of the natives by
fair treatment, they came in calling themselves our
'children.' The whole thing culminated when this quarter was
inundated with Tette slavers, whose operations, with a
marauding tribe of Ajawas, and a drought, completely
depopulated the country. The sight of this made me conclude
that unless something could be done to prevent these raids,
and take off their foolish obstructions on the rivers, which
they never use, our work in this region was at an end....
Please the Supreme, I shall work some other point yet. In
leaving, it is bitter to see some 900 miles of coast
abandoned to those who were the first to begin the
slave-trade, and seem determined to be the last to abandon
it."
Writing to Mr. Waller at this time he said: "I don't know whether I am
to go on the shelf or not. If I do, I make Africa the shelf. If the
'Lady Nyassa' is well sold, I shall manage. There is a Ruler above, and
his providence guides all things. He is our Friend, and has plenty of
work for all his people to do. Don't fear of being left idle, if willing
to work for Him. I am glad to her of Alington. If the work is of God it
will came out all right at last. To Him shall be given of the gold of
Sheba, and daily shall He be praised. I always think it was such a
blessing and privilege to be led into his work instead of into the
service of the hard taskmasters--the Devil and Sin."
The reason assigned by Earl Russell for the recall of the Expedition
were, that, not through any fault of Dr. Livingstone's, it had not
accomplished the objects for which it had been designed, and that it had
proved much more costly than was originally expected. Probably the
Government felt likewise that their remonstrances with the Portuguese
Government were unavailing, and that their relations were becoming too
uncomfortable. Even among those most friendly to Dr. Livingstone's great
aim, and most opposed to the slave-trade, and to the Portuguese policy
in Africa, there were some who doubted whether his proposed methods of
procedure were quite consistent with the rights of the Portuguese
Government. His Royal Highness the Prince-Consort indicated some feeling
of this kind in his interview with Livingstone in 1857. He expressed the
feeling more strongly when he declined the request, made to him through
Professor Sedgwick of Cambridge, that he would allow himself to be
Patron of the Universities Mission. Dr. Livingstone knew well that from
that exalted quarter his plans would receive no active support. That he
should have obtained the support he did from successive Governments and
successive Foreign Secretaries, Liberal and Conservative, was a great
gratification, if not something of a surprise. Hence the calmness with
which he received the intelligence of the recall. Toward the Portuguese
Government his feelings were not very sweet. On them lay the guilt of
arresting a work that would have conferred untold blessing on Africa. He
determined to make this known very clearly when he should return to
England. At a future period of his life, he purposed, if spared, to go
more fully into the reasons of his recall. Meanwhile, his course was
simply to acquiesce in the resolution of the British Government.
It was unfortunate that the recall took place before he had been able to
carry into effect his favorite scheme of placing a steamer on Lake
Nyassa; nor could he do this now, although the vessel on which he had
spent half his fortune lay at the Murchison Cataracts. He had always
cherished the hope that the Government would repay him at least a part
of the outlay, which, instead of £3000, as he had intended, had mounted
up to £6000. He had very generously told Dr. Stewart that if this should
be done, and if he should be willing to return from Scotland to labor on
the shores of Nyassa, he would pay him his expenses out, and £150
yearly, so anxious was he that he should begin the work. On the recall
of the Expedition, without any allowance for the ship, or even mention
of it, all these expectations and intentions came abruptly to an end.
At no previous time had Dr. Livingstone been under greater
discouragements than now. The Expedition had been recalled; his heart
had not recovered from the desolation caused by the death of the Bishop
and his brethren, as well as the Helmores in the Makololo country, and
still more by the removal of Mrs. Livingstone, and the thought of his
motherless children; the most heart-rending scenes had been witnessed
everywhere in regions that a short time ago had been so bright; all his
efforts to do good had been turned to evil, every new path he had opened
having been seized as it were by the devil and turned to the most
diabolical ends; his countrymen were nearly all away from him; the most
depressing of diseases had produced its natural effect; he had had
worries, delays, and disappointments about ships and boats of the most
harrassing kind; and now the "Lady Nyassa" could not be floated in the
waters of which he had fondly hoped to see her the angel and the queen.
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the noble quality of the heart that,
undeterred by all these troubles, resolved to take this last chance of
exploring the banks of Nyassa, although it could only be by the weary
process of trudge, trudge, trudging; although hunger, if not starvation,
blocked the path, and fever and dysentery flitted around it like imps of
darkness; although tribes, demoralized by the slave-trade, might at any
moment put an end to him and his enterprise;--not to speak of the
ordinary risks of travel, the difficulty of finding guides, the
liability to bodily hurt, the scarcity of food, the perils from wild
beasts by night Und by day,--risks which no ordinary traveler could
think of lightly, but which in Livingstone's journeys drop out of sight,
because they are so overtopped and dwarfed by risks that ordinary
travelers never know.
Why did not Livingstone go home? A single sentence in a letter to Mr.
Waller, while the recall was only in contemplation, explains: "In my
case, duty would not lead me home, and home therefore I would not go."
Away then goes Livingstone, accompanied by the steward of the "Pioneer"
and a handful of native servants (Mr. Young being left in charge of the
vessel), to get to the northern end of the lake, and ascertain whether
any large river flowed into it from the west, and if possible to visit
Lake Moero, of which he had heard, lying a considerable way to the west.
For the first time in his travels he carried some bottles of wine,--a
present from the missionaries Waller and Alington; for water had
hitherto been his only drink, with a little hot coffee in the mornings
to warm the stomach and ward off the feeling of sinking. At one time
the two white men are lost three days in the woods, without food or the
means of purchasing it; but some poor natives out of their poverty show
them kindness. At another they can procure no guides, though the country
is difficult and the way intersected by deep gullies that can only be
scaled at certain known parts; anon they are taken for slave-dealers,
and make a narrow escape of a night attack. Another time, the cries of
children remind Livingstone of his own home and family, where the very
same tones of sorrow had often been heard; the thought brought its own
pang, only he could feel thankful that in the case of his children the
woes of the slave-trade would never be added to the ordinary sorrows of
childhood. Then he would enjoy the joyous laugh of some Manganja women,
and think of the good influence of a merry heart, and remember that
whenever he had observed a chief with a joyous twinkle of the eye
accompanying his laugh, he had always set him down as a good fellow, and
had never been disappointed in him afterward. Then he would cheer his
monotony by making some researches into the origin of civilization,
coming to the clear conclusion that born savages must die out, because
they could devise no means of living through disease. By and by he would
examine the Arab character, and find Mahometanism as it now is in Africa
worse than African heathenism, and remark on the callousness of the
Mahometans to the welfare of one another, and on the especial glory of
Christianity, the only religion that seeks to propagate itself, and
through the influence of love share its blessings with others. Anon he
would dwell on the primitive African faith; its recognition of one
Almighty Creator, its moral code, so like our own, save in the one
article of polygamy; its pious recognition of a future life, though the
element of punishment is not very conspicuous; its mild character
generally, notwithstanding the bloodthirstiness sometimes ascribed to
it, which, however, Livingstone held to be, at Dahomey for example,
purely exceptional.
Another subject that occupied him was the natural history of the
country. He would account for desert tracts like Kalahari by the fact
that the east and southeast winds, laden with moisture from the Indian
Ocean, get cooled over the coast ranges of mountains, and having
discharged their vapor there had no spare moisture to deposit over the
regions that for want of it became deserts. The geology of Southern
Africa was peculiar; the geographical series described in books was not
to be found here, for, as Sir Roderick Murchison had shown, the great
submarine depressions and elevations that had so greatly affected the
other continents during the secondary, tertiary, and more recent
periods, had not affected Africa. It had preserved its terrestrial
conditions during a long period, unaffected by any changes save those
dependent on atmospheric influences. There was also a peculiarity in
prehistoric Africa--it had no stone period; at least no flint weapons
had been found, and the familiarity and skill of the natives with the
manufacture of iron seemed to indicate that they had used iron weapons
from the first.
The travelers had got as far as the river Loangwa (of Nyassa), when a
halt had to be called. Some of the natives had been ill, and indeed one
had died in the comparatively cold climate of the highlands. But nothing
would have hindered Livingstone from working his way round the head of
the lake if only time had been on his side. But time was inexorably
against him; the orders from Government were strict. He must get the
"Pioneer" down to the sea while the river was in flood. A month or six
weeks would have enabled him to finish his researches, but he could not
run the risk. It would have been otherwise had he foreseen that when he
got to the ship he would be detained two months waiting for the rising
of the river. On their way back, they took a nearer cut, but found the
villages all deserted. The reeds along the banks of the lake were
crowded with fugitives. "In passing mile after mile, marked with the
sad proofs that 'man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands
mourn,' one experiences an overpowering sense of helplessness to
alleviate human woe, and breathes a silent prayer to the Almighty to
hasten the good time coming when 'man to man, the world o'er, shall
brothers be for all that.'" Near a village called Bangwé they were
pursued by a body of Mazitu, who retired when they came within ear-shot.
This little adventure seemed to give rise to the report that Dr.
Livingstone had been murdered by the Makololo, which reached England,
and created no small alarm. Referring to the report in his jocular way,
in a letter to his friend Mr. Fitch, he says, "A report of my having
been murdered at the lake has been very industriously circulated by the
Portuguese. Don't become so pale on getting a letter from a dead man."
Reaching the stockade of Chinsamba in Mosapo, they were much pleased
with that chief's kindness. Dr. Livingstone followed his usual method,
and gained his usual influence. "When a chief has made any inquiries of
us, we have found that we gave most satisfaction in our answers when we
tried to fancy ourselves in the position of the interrogator, and him
that of a poor uneducated fellow-countryman in England. The polite,
respectful way of speaking, and behavior of what we call 'a thorough
gentleman,' almost always secures the friendship and good-will of the
Africans."
On 1st November, 1863, the party reached the ship, and found all well.
Here, as has been said, two months had to be spent waiting for the
flood, to Dr. Livingstone's intense chagrin.
While waiting here he received a letter from Bishop Tozer, the successor
of Bishop Mackenzie, informing him that he had resolved to abandon the
Mission on the continent and transfer operations to Zanzibar. Dr.
Livingstone had very sincerely welcomed the new Bishop, and at first
liked him, and thought that his caution would lead to good results.
Indeed, when he saw that his own scheme was destroyed by the Portuguese,
he had great hopes that what he had been defeated in, the Mission would
accomplish. Some time before, his hopes had begun to wane, and now the
news conveyed in Bishop Tozer's letter was their death-blow. In his
reply he implored the Bishop to reconsider the matter. After urging
strongly some considerations bearing on the duty of missionaries, the
reputation of Englishmen, and the impression likely to be made on the
native mind, he concluded thus: "I hope, dear Bishop, you will not deem
me guilty of impertinence in thus writing to you with a sore heart. I
see that if you go, the last ray of hope for this wretched, trodden-down
people disappears, and I again from the bottom of my heart entreat you
to reconsider the matter, and may the All-wise One guide to that
decision which will be most for his glory."
And thus, for Livingstone's life-time, ended the Universities Mission to
Central Africa, with all the hopes which its bright dawn had inspired,
that the great Church of England would bend its strength against the
curse of Africa, and sweep it from the face of the earth. Writing to Sir
Thomas Maclear, he said that he felt this much more than his own recall.
He could hardly write of it; he was more inclined "to sit down and cry."
No mission had ever had such bright prospects; notwithstanding all that
had been said against it, he stood by the climate as firmly as ever, and
if he were only young, he would go himself and plant the gospel there.
It would be done one day without fail, though he might not live to
see it.
As usual, Livingstone found himself blamed for the removal of the
Mission. The Makololo had behaved badly, and they were Livingstone's
people. "Isn't it interesting," he writes to Mr. Moore, "to get blamed
for everything? But I must be thankful in feeling that I would rather
perish than blame another for my misdeeds and deficiencies."
We have lost sight of Dr. Stewart and the projected mission of the Free
Church of Scotland. As Dr. Livingstone's arrangements did not admit of
his accompanying Dr. Stewart up the Shiré, he set out alone, falling in
afterward with the Rev. Mr. Scudamore, a member, and as we have already
said ultimately a martyr, of the Universities Mission. The report which
Dr. Stewart made of the prospects of a mission was that, owing to the
disturbed state of the country, no immediate action could be taken.
Livingstone seemed to think him hasty in this conclusion. The scheme
continued to be ardently cherished, and some ten or twelve years
after--in 1874--in the formation of the "Livingstonia" mission and
colony, a most promising and practical step was taken toward the
fulfillment of Dr. Livingstone's views. Dr. Stewart has proved one of
the best friends and noblest workers for African regeneration both at
Lovedale and Livingstonia--a strong man on whom other men may lean, with
his whole heart in the cause of Africa.
In the breaking up of the Universities Mission, it was necessary that
some arrangement should be made on behalf of about thirty boys and a few
helpless old persons and others, a portion of the rescued slaves, who
had been taken under the charge of the Mission, and could not be
abandoned. The fear of the Portuguese seemed likely to lead to their
being left behind. But Livingstone could not bear the idea. He thought
it would be highly discreditable to the good name of England, and an
affront to the memory of Bishop Mackenzie, to "repudiate" his act in
taking them under his protection. Therefore, when Bishop Tozer would not
accept the charge, he himself took them in hand, giving orders to Mr.
E.D. Young (as he says in his Journal), "in the event of any Portuguese
interfering with them in his absence, to pitch him over-board!" Through
his influence arrangements were made, as we shall see, for conveying
them to the Cape. Mr. R.M. Ballantyne, in his _Six Months at the Cape_,
tells us that he found, some years afterward, among the most efficient
teachers in St. George's Orphanage, Cape Town, one of these black girls,
named Dauma, whom Bishop Mackenzie had personally rescued and carried on
his shoulders, and whom Livingstone now rescued a second time.
Livingstone's plan for himself was to sail to Bombay in the "Lady
Nyassa," and endeavor to sell her there, before returning home. The
Portuguese would have liked to get her, to employ her as a
slaver--"But," he wrote to his daughter (10th August, 1863), "I would
rather see her go down to the depths of the Indian Ocean than that. We
have not been able to do all that we intended for this country, owing to
the jealousy and slave-hunting of the Portuguese. They have hindered us
effectually by sweeping away the population into slavery. Thousands have
perished, and wherever we go human skeletons appear. I suppose that our
Government could not prevail on the Portuguese to put a stop to this; so
we are recalled. I am only sorry that we ever began near these slavers,
but the great men of Portugal professed so loudly their eager desire to
help us (and in the case of the late King I think there was sincerity),
that I believed them, and now find out that it was all for show in
Europe.... If missions were established as we hoped, I should still hope
for good being done to this land, but the new Bishop had to pay
fourpence for every pound weight of calico he bought, and calico is as
much currency here as money is in Glasgow. It looks as if they wished to
prohibit any one else coming, and, unfortunately, Bishop Tozer, a good
man enough, lacks courage.... What a mission it would be if there were
no difficulties--nothing but walking about in slippers made by admiring
young ladies! Hey! that would not suit me. It would give me the
doldrums; but there are many tastes in the world."
Looking back on the work of the last six years, while deeply grieved
that the great object of the Expedition had not been achieved, Dr.
Livingstone was able to point to some important results:
1. The discovery of the Kongone harbor, and the ascertaining of the
condition of the Zambesi River, and its fitness for navigation.
2. The ascertaining of the capacity of the soil. It was found to be
admirably adapted for indigo and cotton, as well as tobacco, castor-oil,
and sugar. Its great fertility was shown by its gigantic grasses, and
abundant crops of corn and maize. The highlands were free from tsetse
and mosquitoes. The drawback to all this was the occurrence of
periodical droughts, once every few years.
But every fine feature of the country was bathed in gloom by the
slave-trade. The image left in Dr. Livingstone's mind was not that of
the rich, sunny, luxuriant country, but that of the woe and wretchedness
of the people. The real service of the Expedition was, that it had
exposed slavery at its fountain-head, and in all its phases. First,
there was the internal slave-trade between hostile native tribes. Then,
there were the slave-traders from the coast, Arabs, or half-caste
Portuguese, for whom natives were encouraged to collect slaves by all
the horrible means of marauding and murder. And further, there were the
parties sent out from Portuguese and Arab coast towns, with cloth and
beads, muskets and ammunition. The destructive and murderous effects of
the last were the climax of the system.
Dr. Livingstone had seen nothing to make him regard the African as of a
different species from the rest of the human family. Nor was he the
lowest of the species. He had a strong frame and a wonderfully
persistent vitality, was free from many European diseases, and could
withstand privations with wonderful light-heartedness.
He did not deem it necessary formally to answer a question sometimes
put, whether the African had enough of intellect to receive
Christianity. The reception of Christianity did not depend on intellect.
It depended, as Sir James Stephen had remarked, on a spiritual
intuition, which was not the fruit of intellectual culture. But, in
fact, the success of missions on the West Coast showed that not only
could the African be converted to Christianity, but that Christianity
might take root and be cordially supported by the African race.
It was the accursed slave-trade, promoted by the Portuguese, that had
frustrated everything. For some time to come his efforts and his prayers
must be directed to getting influential men to see to this, so that one
way or other the trade might be abolished forever. The hope of obtaining
access to the heart of Africa by another route than that through the
Portuguese settlements was still in Livingstone's heart. He would go
home, but only for a few months; at the earliest possible moment he
would return to look for a new route to the interior.