FROM UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO.
A.D. 1872-73.
Livingstone's long wait at Unyanyembe--His plan of operations--His
fifty-ninth, birthday--Renewal of self-dedication--Letters to Agnes--to
_New York Herald_--Hardness of the African battle--Waverings of
judgment, whether Lualaba was the Nile or the Congo--Extracts from
Journal--Gleams of humor--Natural history--His distress on hearing of
the death of Sir Roderick Murchison--Thoughts on mission-work--Arrival
of his escort--His happiness in his new men--He starts from
Unyanyembe--Illness--Great amount of rain--Near Bangweolo--Incessant
moisture--Flowers of the forest--Taking of observations regularly
prosecuted--Dreadful state of the country from rain--Hunger--Furious
attack of ants--Greatness of Livingstone's sufferings--Letters to Sir
Thomas Maclear, Mr. Young, his brother, and Agnes--His sixtieth
birthday--Great weakness in April--Sunday services and observations
continued--Increasing illness--The end approaching--Last written
words--Last day of his travels--He reaches Chitambo's village, in
Ilala--Is found on his knees dead, on morning of 1st May--Courage and
affection of his attendants--His body embalmed--Carried toward
shore--Dangers and sufferings during the march--The party meet
Lieutenant Cameron at Unyanyembe--Determine to go on--_Ruse_ at
Kasekéra--Death of Dr. Dillon--The party reach Bagamoio, and the remains
are placed on board a cruiser--The Search Expeditions from England--to
East Coast under Cameron--to West Coast under Grandy--Explanation of
Expeditions by Sir Henry Rawlinson--Livingstone's remains brought to
England--Examined by Sir W. Fergusson and others--Buried in Westminster
Abbey--Inscription on slab--Livingstone's wish for a forest grave--Lines
from _Punch_--Tributes to his memory--Sir Bartle Frere--The
_Lancet_--Lord Polwarth--Florence Nightingale.
When Stanley left Livingstone at Unyanyembe there was nothing for the
latter but to wait there until the men should come to him who were to be
sent up from Zanzibar Stanley left on the 14th March; Livingstone
calculated that he would reach Zanzibar on the 1st May, that his men
would be ready to start about the 22d May, and that they ought to
arrive at Unyanyembe on the 10th or 15th July. In reality, Stanley did
not reach Bagamoio till the 6th May, the men were sent off about the
25th, and they reached Unyanyembe about the 9th August. A month more
than had been counted on had to be spent at Unyanyembe, and this delay
was all the more trying because it brought the traveler nearer to the
rainy season.
The intention of Dr. Livingstone, when the men should come, was to
strike south by Ufipa, go round Tanganyika, then cross the Chambeze, and
bear away along the southern shore of Bangweolo, straight west to the
ancient fountains; from them in eight days to Katanga copper mines; from
Katanga, in ten days, northeast to the great underground excavations,
and back again to Katanga; from which N.N.W. twelve days to the head of
Lake Lincoln. "There I hope devoutly," he writes to his daughter, "to
thank the Lord of all, and turn my face along Lake Kamolondo, and over
Lualaba, Tanganyika, Ujiji, and home."
His stay at Unyanyembe was a somewhat dreary one; there was little to do
and little to interest him. Five days after Stanley left him occurred
his fifty-ninth birthday. How his soul was exercised appears from the
renewal of his self-dedication recorded in his Journal:
"19_th March, Birthday_.--My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All;
I again dedicate my whole self to Thee. Accept me, and grant,
O gracious Father, that ere this year is gone I may finish my
task. In Jesus' name I ask it. Amen. So let it be. DAVID
LIVINGSTONE."
Frequent letters were written to his daughter from Unyanyembe, and they
dwelt a good deal upon his difficulties, the treacherous way in which he
had been treated, and the indescribable toil and suffering which had
been the result. He said that in complaining to Dr. Kirk of the men whom
he had employed, and the disgraceful use they had made of his (Kirk's)
name, he never meant to charge him with being the author of their
crimes, and it never occurred to him to say to Kirk, "I don't believe
you to be the traitor they imply;" but Kirk took his complaint in high
dudgeon as a covert attack upon himself, and did not act toward him as
he ought to have done, considering what he owed him. His cordial and
uniform testimony of Stanley was, "altogether he has behaved
right nobly."
On the 1st May he finished a letter for the _New York Herald_, and asked
God's blessing on it. It contained the memorable words afterward
inscribed on the stone to his memory in Westminster Abbey: "All I can
add in my loneliness is, may Heaven's rich blessing come down on every
one--American, English, or Turk--who will help to heal the open sore of
the world." It happened that the words were written precisely a year
before his death.
Amid the universal darkness around him, the universal ignorance of God
and of the grace and love of Jesus Christ, it was hard to believe that
Africa should ever be won. He had to strengthen his faith amid this
universal desolation. We read in his Journal:
"13_th May_.--He will keep his word--the gracious One, full
of grace and truth; no doubt of it. He said: 'Him that cometh
unto me, I will in no wise cast out;' and 'Whatsoever ye
shall ask in my name, I will give it.' He WILL keep his word:
then I can come and humbly present my petition, and it will
be all right. Doubt is here inadmissible, surely, D.L."
His mind ruminates on the river system of the country and the
probability of his being in error:
"2l_st May_.--I wish I had some of the assurance possessed by
others, but I am oppressed with the apprehension that, after
all, it may turn out that I have been following the Congo;
and who would risk being put into a cannibal pot, and
converted into black man for _it?_"
"31_st May_.--In reference to this Nile source, I have been
kept in perpetual doubt and perplexity. I know too much to be
positive. Great Lualaba, or Lualubba, as Manyuema say, may
turn out to be the Congo, and Nile a shorter river after
all[75]. The fountains flowing north and south seem in favor
of its being the Nile. Great westing is in favor of
the Congo."
[Footnote 75: From false punctuation, this passage is
unintelligible in the _Last Journals_, vol. ii. p. 193.]
"24_th June_.--The medical education has led me to a
continual tendency to suspend the judgment. What a state of
blessedness it would have been, had I possessed the dead
certainty of the homoeopathic persuasion, and as soon as I
found the Lakes Bangweolo, Moero, and Kamolondo, pouring out
their waters down the great central valley, bellowed out,
'Hurrah! Eureka!' and gone home in firm and honest belief
that I had settled it, and no mistake. Instead of that, I am
even now not at all 'cock-sure' that I have not been
following down what may after all be the Congo."
We now know that this was just what he had been doing. But we honor him
all the more for the diffidence that would not adopt a conclusion while
any part of the evidence was wanting, and that led him to encounter
unexampled risks and hardships before he would affirm his favorite view
as a fact. The moral lesson thus enforced is invaluable. We are almost
thankful that Livingstone never got his doubts solved, it would have
been such a disappointment; even had he known that in all time coming
the great stream which had cast on him such a resistless spell would be
known as the Livingstone River, and would perpetuate the memory of his
life and his efforts for the good of Africa.
Occasionally his Journal gives a gleam, of humor: "18_th June_.--The
Ptolemaic map defines people according to their food,--the
Elephantophagi, the Struthiophagi, the Ichthiophagi, and the
Anthropophagi, If we followed the same sort of classification, our
definition would be by the drink, thus: the tribe of stout-guzzlers, the
roaring potheen-fuddlers, the whisky-fishoid-drinkers, the vin-ordinaire
bibbers, the lager-beer-swillers, and an outlying tribe of the brandy
cocktail persuasion."
Natural History furnishes an unfailing interest: "19_th June_.--Whydahs,
though full-fledged, still gladly take a feed from their dam, putting
down the breast to the ground, and cocking up the bill and chirruping in
the most engaging manner and winning way they know. She still gives them
a little, but administers a friendly shove-off too. They all pick up
feathers or grass, and hop from side to side of their mates, as if
saying, 'Come, let us play at making little houses.' The wagtail has
shaken her young quite off, and has a new nest. She warbles prettily,
very much like a canary, and is extremely active in catching flies, but
eats crumbs of bread-and-milk too. Sun-birds visit the pomegranate
flowers, and eat insects therein too, as well as nectar. The young
whydah birds crouch closely together at night for heat. They look like a
woolly ball on a branch. By day they engage in pairing and coaxing each
other. They come to the same twig every night. Like children, they try
and lift heavy weights of feathers above their strength."
On 3d July a very sad entry occurs: "Received a note from Oswell,
written in April last, containing the sad intelligence of Sir Roderick's
departure from among us. Alas! alas! this is the only time in my life I
ever felt inclined to use the word, and it bespeaks a sore heart; the
best friend I ever had,--true, warm, and abiding,--he loved me more than
I deserved; he looks down on me still." This entry indicates
extraordinary depth of emotion. Sir Roderick exercised a kind of spell
on Livingstone. Respect for him was one of the subordinate motives that
induced him to undertake this journey. The hope of giving him
satisfaction was one of the subordinate rewards to which he looked
forward. His death was to Livingstone a kind of scientific widowhood,
and must have deprived him of a great spring to exertion in this last
wandering. On Sir Roderick's part the affection for him was very great.
"Looking back," says his biographer, Professor Geikie, "upon his
scientific career when not far from its close, Murchison found no part
of it which brought more pleasing recollections than the support he had
given to African explorers--Speke, Grant, notably Livingstone. 'I
rejoice,' he said, 'in the steadfast tenacity with which I have upheld
my confidence in the ultimate success of the last-named of these brave
men. In fact, it was the confidence I placed in the undying vigor of my
dear friend Livingstone which has sustained me in the hope that I might
live to enjoy the supreme delight of welcoming him back to his own
country.' But that consummation was not to be. He himself was gathered
to his rest just six days before Stanley brought news and relief to the
forlorn traveler on Lake Tanganyika. And Livingstone, while still in
pursuit of his quest, and within ten months of his death, learned in the
heart of Africa the tidings which he chronicled in his journal[76]."
[Footnote 76: _Life of Sir R. I. Murchison_, vol. ii. pp. 297-8.]
At other times he is ruminating on mission-work:
"10_th July_.--No great difficulty would be encountered in
establishing a Christian mission a hundred miles or so from
the East Coast.... To the natives the chief attention of the
mission should be directed. It would not be desirable or
advisable to refuse explanation to others; but I have avoided
giving offense to intelligent Arabs, who, having pressed me,
asking if I believed in Mohamed, by saying, 'No, I do not; I
am a child of Jesus bin Miriam,' avoiding anything offensive
in my tone, and often adding that Mohamed found their
forefathers bowing down to trees and stones, and did good to
them by forbidding idolatry, and teaching the worship of the
only One God. This they all know, and it pleases them to have
it recognized. It might be good policy to hire a respectable
Arab to engage free porters, and conduct the mission to the
country chosen, and obtain permission from the chief to build
temporary houses.... A couple of Europeans beginning and
carrying on a mission without a staff of foreign attendants,
implies coarse country fare, it is true; but this would be
nothing to those who at home amuse themselves with vigils,
fasting, etc. A great deal of power is thus lost in the
Church. Fastings and vigils, without a special object in
view, are time run to waste. They are made to minister to a
sort of self-gratification, instead of being turned to
account for the good of others. They are like groaning in
sickness: some people amuse themselves when ill with
continuous moaning. The forty days of Lent might be annually
spent in visiting adjacent tribes, and bearing unavoidable
hunger and thirst with a good grace. Considering the
greatness of the object to be attained, men might go without
sugar, coffee, tea, as I went from September, 1866, to
December, 1868, without either."
On the subject of Missions he says, at a later period, 8th November:
"The spirit of missions is the spirit of our Master; the very genius of
his religion. A diffusive philanthropy is Christianity itself. It
requires perpetual propagation to attest its genuineness."
Thanks to Mr. Stanley and the American Consul, who made arrangements in
a way that drew Livingstone's warmest gratitude, his escort arrived at
last, consisting of fifty-seven men and boys. Several of these had gone
with Mr. Stanley from Unyanyembe to Zanzibar; among the new men were
some Nassick pupils who had been sent from Bombay to join Lieutenant
Dawson. John and Jacob Wainwright were among these. To Jacob Wainwright,
who was well-educated, we owe the earliest narrative that appeared of
the last eight months of Livingstone's career. How happy he was with the
men now sent to him appears from a letter to Mr. Stanley, written very
near his death: "I am perpetually reminded that I owe a great deal to
you for the men, you sent. With one exception, the party is working like
a machine. I give my orders to Manwa Sera, and never have to repeat
them." Would that he had had such a company before!
On the 25th August the party started. On the 8th October they reached
Tanganyika, and rested, for they were tired, and several were sick,
including Livingstone, who had been ill with his bowel disorder. The
march went on slowly, and with few incidents. As the season advanced,
rain, mist, swollen streams, and swampy ground became familiar. At the
end of the year they were approaching the river Chambeze. Christmas had
its thanksgiving: "I thank the good Lord for the good gift of his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord."
In the second week of January they came near Bangweolo, and the reign
of Neptune became incessant. We are told of cold rainy weather;
sometimes a drizzle, sometimes an incessant pour; swollen streams and
increasing sponges,--making progress a continual struggle. Yet, as he
passes through a forest, he has an eye to its flowers, which are
numerous and beautiful:
"There are many flowers in the forest; marigolds, a white
jonquil-looking flower without smell, many orchids, white,
yellow, and pink asclepias, with bunches of French-white
flowers, clematis--_Methonica gloriosa_, gladiolus, and blue
and deep purple polygalas, grasses with white starry
seed-vessels, and spikelets of brownish red and yellow.
Besides these, there are beautiful blue flowering bulbs, and
new flowers of pretty, delicate form and but little scent. To
this list may be added balsams, composite of blood-red color
and of purple; other flowers of liver color, bright canary
yellow, pink orchids on spikes thickly covered all round, and
of three inches in length; spiderworts of fine blue or yellow
or even pink. Different colored asclepiadeæ; beautiful yellow
and red umbelliferous flowering plants; dill and wild
parsnips; pretty flowering aloes, yellow and red, in one
whorl of blossoms; peas and many other flowering plants which
I do not know."
Observations were taken with unremitting diligence, except when, as was
now common, nothing could be seen in the heavens. As they advanced, the
weather became worse. It rained as if nothing but rain were ever known
in the watershed. The path lay across flooded rivers, which were
distinguished by their currents only from the flooded country along
their banks. Dr. Livingstone had to be carried over the rivers on the
back of one of his men, in the fashion so graphically depicted on the
cover of the _Last Journals_. The stretches of sponge that came before
and after the rivers, with their long grass and elephant-holes, were
scarcely less trying. The inhabitants were, commonly, most unfriendly to
the party; they refused them food, and, whenever they could, deceived
them as to the way. Hunger bore down on the party with its bitter
gnawing. Once a mass of furious ants attacked the Doctor by night,
driving him in despair from hut to hut. Any frame but one of Iron must
have succumbed to a single month of such a life, and before a week was
out, any body of men, not held together by a power of discipline and a
charm of affection unexampled in the history of difficult expeditions,
would have been scattered to the four winds. Livingstone's own
sufferings were beyond all previous example.
About this time he began an undated letter--his last--to his old friends
Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann. It was never finished, and never
despatched; but as one of the latest things he ever wrote, it is deeply
interesting, as showing how clear, vigorous, and independent his mind
was to the very last:
"LAKE BANGWEOLO, SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA.
"MY DEAR FRIENDS MACLEAR AND MANN,--... My work at present is
mainly retracing my steps to take up the thread of my
exploration. It counts in my lost time, but I try to make the
most of it by going round outside this lake and all the
sources, so that no one may come afterward and cut me out. I
have a party of good men, selected by H. M. Stanley, who, at
the instance of James Gordon Bennett, of the _New York
Herald_, acted the part of a good Samaritan truly, and
relieved my sore necessities. A dutiful son could not have
done more than he generously did. I bless him. The men,
fifty-six in number, have behaved as well as Makololo. I
cannot award them higher praise, though they have not the
courage of that brave kind-hearted people. From Unyanyembe we
went due south to avoid an Arab war which had been going on
for eighteen months. It is like one of our Caffre wars, with
this difference--no one is enriched thereby, for all trade is
stopped, and the Home Government pays nothing. We then went
westward to Tanganyika, and along its eastern excessively
mountainous bank to the end. The heat was really broiling
among the rocks. No rain had fallen, and the grass being
generally burned off, the heat rose off the black ashes as if
out of an oven, yet the flowers persisted in coming out of
the burning soil, and generally without leaves, as if it had
been a custom that they must observe by a law of the Medes
and Persians. This part detained us long; the men's limbs
were affected with a sort of subcutaneous
inflammation,--black rose or erysipelas,--and when I proposed
mildly and medically to relieve the tension it was too
horrible to be thought of, but they willingly carried the
helpless. Then we mounted up at once into the high, cold
region Urungu, south of Tanganyika, and into the middle of
the rainy season, with well-grown grass and everything
oppressively green; rain so often that no observations could
be made, except at wide intervals. I could form no opinion as
to our longitude, and but little of our latitudes. Three of
the Baurungu chiefs, one a great friend of mine, Nasonso, had
died, and the population all turned topsy-turvy, so I could
make no use of previous observations. They elect sisters' or
brothers' sons to the chieftainship, instead of the
heir-apparent. Food was not to be had for either love
or money.
"I was at the mercy of guides who did not know their own
country, and when I insisted on following the compass, they
threatened, 'no food for five or ten days in that line.' They
brought us down to the back or north side of Bangweolo, while
I wanted to cross the Chambeze and go round its southern
side. So back again southeastward we had to bend. The
Portuguese crossed this Chambeze a long time ago, and are
therefore the first European discoverers. We were not black
men with Portuguese names like those for whom the feat of
crossing the continent was eagerly claimed by Lisbon
statesmen. Dr. Lacerda was a man of scientific attainments,
and Governor of Tette, but finding Cazembe at the rivulet
called Chungu, he unfortunately succumbed to fever ten days
after his arrival. He seemed anxious to make his way across
to Angola. Misled by the similarity of Chambeze to Zambesi,
they all thought it to be a branch of the river that flows
past Tette, Senna, and Shupanga, by Luabo and Kongoné to
the sea.
"I rather stupidly took up the same idea from a map saying
'Zambesi' (eastern branch), believing that the map printer
had some authority for his assertion. My first crossing was
thus as fruitless as theirs, and I was less excusable, for I
ought to have remembered that while Chambeze is the true
native name of the northern river, Zambesi is not the name of
the southern river at all. It is a Portugese corruption of
Dombazi, which we adopted rather than introduce confusion by
new names, in the same way that we adopted Nyassa instead of
Nyanza ia Nyinyesi == Lake of the Stars, which the
Portuguese, from hearsay, corrupted into Nyassa. The English
have been worse propagators of nonsense than Portuguese.
'Geography of Nyassa' was thought to be a learned way of
writing the name, though 'Nyassi' means long grass and
nothing else. It took me twenty-two months to eliminate the
error into which I was led, and then it was not by my own
acuteness, but by the chief Cazembe, who was lately routed
and slain by a party of Banyamwezi. He gave me the first hint
of the truth, and that rather in a bantering strain: 'One
piece of water is just like another; Bangweolo water is just
like Moero water, Chambeze water like Luapula water; they are
all the same; but your chief ordered you to go to the
Bangweolo, therefore by all means go, but wait a few days,
till I have looked out for good men as guides, and good food
for you to eat,' etc. etc.
"I was not sure but that it was all royal chaff, till I made
my way back south to the head-waters again, and had the
natives of the islet Mpabala slowly moving the hands all
around the great expanse, with 183° of sea horizon, and
saying that is Chambeze, forming the great Bangweolo, and
disappearing behind that western headland to change its name
to Luapula, and run down past Cazembe to Moero. That was the
moment of discovery, and not my passage or the Portuguese
passage of the river. If, however, any one chooses to claim
for them the discovery of Chambeze as one line of drainage of
the Nile Valley, I shall not fight with him; Culpepper's
astrology was in the same way the forerunner of the
Herschels' and the other astronomers that followed."
To another old friend, Mr. James Young, he wrote about the same time:
"_Opere peracto ludemus_--the work being finished, we will play--you
remember in your Latin Rudiments lang syne. It is true for you, and I
rejoice to think it is now your portion, after working nobly, to play.
May you have a long spell of it! I am differently situated; I shall
never be able to play.... To me it seems to be said, 'If thou forbear to
deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that be ready to be
slain; if thou sayest, Behold we knew it not, doth not He that pondereth
the heart consider, and He that keepeth thy soul doth He not know, and
shall He not give to every one according to his works?' I have been led,
unwittingly, into the slaving field of the Banians and Arabs in Central
Africa. I have seen the woes inflicted, and I must still work and do all
I can to expose and mitigate the evils. Though hard work is still to be
my lot, I look genially on others more favored in their lot. I would not
be a member of the 'International,' for I love to see and think of
others enjoying life.
"During a large part of this journey I had a strong presentiment that I
should never live to finish it. It is weakened now, as I seem to see the
end toward which I have been striving looming in the distance. This
presentiment did not interfere with the performance of any duty; it
only made me think a great deal more of the future state of being."
In his latest letters there is abundant evidence that the great desire
of his heart was to expose the slave-trade, rouse public feeling, and
get that great hindrance to all good for ever swept away.
"Spare no pains," he wrote to Dr. Kirk in 1871, "in attempting to
persuade your superior to this end, and the Divine blessing will descend
on you and yours."
To his daughter Agnes he wrote (15th August, 1872): "No one can estimate
the amount of God-pleasing good that will be done, if, by Divine favor,
this awful slave-trade, into the midst of which I have come, be
abolished. This will be something to have lived for, and the conviction
has grown in my mind that it was _for this end_ I have been detained
so long."
To his brother in Canada he says (December, 1872): "If the good Lord
permits me to put a stop to the enormous evils of the inland
slave-trade, I shall not grudge my hunger and toils. I shall bless his
name with all my heart. The Nile sources are valuable to me only as a
means of enabling me to open my mouth with power among men. It is this
power I hope to apply to remedy an enormous evil, and join my poor
little helping hand in the enormous revolution that in his all-embracing
Providence He has been carrying on for ages, and is now actually helping
forward. Men may think I covet fame, but I make it a rule never to read
aught written in my praise."
Livingstone's last birthday (19th March, 1873) found him in much the
same circumstances as before. "Thanks to the Almighty Preserver of men
for sparing me thus far on the journey of life. Can I hope for ultimate
success? So many obstacles have arisen. Let not Satan prevail over me, O
my good Lord Jesus." A few days after (24th March): "Nothing earthly
will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord
my God, and go forward."
In the beginning of April, the bleeding from the bowels, from which he
had been suffering, became more copious, and his weakness was pitiful;
still he longed for strength to finish his work. Even yet the old
passion for natural history was strong; the aqueous plants that abounded
everywhere, the caterpillars that after eating the plants ate one
another, and were such clumsy swimmers; the fish with the hook-shaped
lower jaw that enabled them to feed as they skimmed past the plants; the
morning summons of the cocks and turtle-doves; the weird scream of the
fish eagle--all engaged his interest. Observations continued to be
taken, and the Sunday services were always held.
But on the 21st April a change occurred. In a shaky hand he wrote:
"Tried to ride, but was forced to lie down, and they carried me back to
vil. exhausted." A kitanda or palanquin had to be made for carrying him.
It was sorry work, for his pains were excruciating and his weakness
excessive. On the 27th April[77] he was apparently at the lowest ebb,
and wrote in his Journal the last words he ever penned--"Knocked up
quite, and remain == recover sent to buy milch goats. We are on the
banks of R. Molilamo."
[Footnote 77: This was the eleventh anniversary of his wife's death.]
The word "recover" seems to show that he had no presentiment of death,
but cherished the hope of recovery; and Mr. Waller has pointed out, from
his own sad observation of numerous cases in connection with the
Universities Mission, that malarial poisoning is usually unattended with
the apprehension of death, and that in none of these instances, any more
than in the case of Livingstone, were there any such messages, or
instructions, or expressions of trust and hope as are usual on the part
of Christian men when death is near.
The 29th of April was the last day of his travels. In the morning he
directed Susi to take down the side of the hut that the kitanda might be
brought along, as the door would not admit it, and he was quite unable
to walk to it. Then came the crossing of a river; then progress through
swamps and plashes; and when they got to anything like a dry plain, he
would ever and anon beg of them to lay him down. At last they got him to
Chitambo's village, in Ilala, where they had to put him under the eaves
of a house during a drizzling rain, until the hut they were building
should be got ready.
Then they laid him on a rough bed in the hut, where he spent the night.
Next day he lay undisturbed. He asked a few wandering questions about
the country--especially about the Luapula. His people knew that the end
could not be far off. Nothing occurred to attract notice during the
early part of the night, but at four in the morning, the boy who lay at
his door called in alarm for Susi, fearing that their master was dead.
By the candle still burning they saw him, not in bed, but kneeling at
the bedside with his head buried in his hands upon the pillow. The sad
yet not unexpected truth soon became evident: he had passed away on the
furthest of all his journeys, and without a single attendant. But he had
died in the act of prayer--prayer offered in that reverential attitude
about which he was always so particular; commending his own spirit, with
all his dear ones, as was his wont, into the hands of his Saviour; and
commending AFRICA--his own dear Africa--with all her woes and sins and
wrongs, to the Avenger of the oppressed and the Redeemer of the lost.
If anything were needed to commend the African race, and prove them
possessed of qualities fitted to make a noble nation, the courage,
affection, and persevering loyalty shown by his attendants after his
death might well have this effect. When the sad event became known among
the men, it was cordially resolved that every effort should be made to
carry their master's remains to Zanzibar. Such an undertaking was
extremely perilous, for there were not merely the ordinary risks of
travel to a small body of natives, but there was also the superstitious
horror everywhere prevalent connected with the dead. Chitambo must be
kept in ignorance of what had happened, otherwise a ruinous fine would
be sure to be inflicted on them. The secret, however, oozed out, but
happily the chief was reasonable. Susi and Chuma, the old attendants of
Livingstone, became now the leaders of the company, and they fulfilled
their task right nobly. The interesting narrative of Mr. Waller at the
end of the _Last Journals_ tells us how calmly yet efficiently they set
to work. Arrangements were made for drying and embalming the body, after
removing and burying the heart and other viscera. For fourteen days the
body was dried in the sun. After being wrapped in calico, and the legs
bent inward at the knees, it was enclosed in a large piece of bark from
a Myonga-tree in the form of a cylinder; over this a piece of sail-cloth
was sewed; and the package was lashed to a pole, so as to be carried by
two men. Jacob Wainwright carved an inscription on the Mvula tree under
which the body had rested, and where the heart was buried, and Chitambo
was charged to keep the grass cleared away, and to protect two posts and
a cross-piece which they erected to mark the spot.
They then set out on their homeward march. It was a serious journey, for
the terrible exposure had affected the health of most of them, and many
had to lie down through sickness. The tribes through which they passed
were generally friendly, but not always. At one place they had a regular
fight. On the whole, their progress was wonderfully quiet and regular.
Everywhere they found that the news of the Doctor's death had got before
them. At one place they heard that a party of Englishmen, headed by Dr.
Livingstone's son, on their way to relieve his father, had been seen at
Bagamoio some months previously. As they approached Unyanyembe, they
learned that the party was there, but when Chuma ran on before, he was
disappointed to find that Oswell Livingstone was not among them.
Lieutenant Cameron, Dr. Dillon, and Lieutenant Murphy were there, and
heard the tidings of the men with deep emotion. Cameron wished them to
bury the remains where they were, and not run the risk of conveying them
through the Ugogo country; but the men were inflexible, determined to
carry out their first intention. This was not the only interference with
these devoted and faithful men. Considering how carefully they had
gathered all Livingstone's property, and how conscientiously, at the
risk of their lives, they were carrying it to the coast, to transfer it
to the British Consul there, it was not warrantable in the new-comers to
take the boxes from them, examine their contents, and carry off a part
of them. Nor do we think Lieutenant Cameron was entitled to take away
the instruments with which all Livingstone's observations had been made
for a series of seven years, and use them, though only temporarily, for
the purpose of his Expedition, inasmuch as he thereby made it impossible
so to reduce Livingstone's observations as that correct results should
be obtained from them. Sir Henry Rawlinson seems not to have adverted to
this result of Mr. Cameron's act, in his reference to the matter from
the chair of the Geographical Society.
On leaving Unyanyembe the party were joined by Lieutenant Murphy, not
much to the promotion of unity of action or harmonious feeling. At
Kasekéra a spirit of opposition was shown by the inhabitants, and a
_ruse_ was resorted to so as to throw them off their guard. It was
resolved to pack the remains in such form that when wrapped in calico
they should appear like an ordinary bale of merchandise. A fagot of
mapira stalks, cut into lengths of about six feet, was then swathed in
cloth, to imitate a dead body about to be buried. This was sent back
along the way to Unyanyembe, as if the party had changed their minds and
resolved to bury the remains there. The bearers, at nightfall, began to
throw away the mapira rods, and then the wrappings, and when they had
thus disposed of them they returned to their companions. The villagers
of Kasekéra had now no suspicion, and allowed the party to pass
unmolested. But though one tragedy was averted, another was enacted at
Kasekéra--the dreadful suicide of Dr. Dillon while suffering from
dysentery and fever.
The cortége now passed on without further incident, and arrived at
Bagamoio in February, 1874. Soon after they reached Bagamoio a cruiser
arrived from Zanzibar, with the acting Consul, Captain Prideaux, on
board, and the remains were conveyed to that island previous to their
being sent to England.
The men that for nine long months remained steadfast to their purpose to
pay honor to the remains of their master, in the midst of innumerable
trials and dangers and without hope of reward, have established a strong
claim to the gratitude and admiration of the world. Would that the debt
were promptly repaid in efforts to free Africa from her oppressors, and
send throughout all her borders the Divine proclamation, "Glory to God
in the highest, on earth peace, good-will to men."
In regard to the Search party to which reference has been made, it may
be stated that when Livingstone's purpose to go back to the barbarous
regions where he had suffered so much before became known in England it
excited a feeling of profound concern. Two Expeditions were arranged.
That to the East Coast, organized by the Royal Geographical Society, was
placed under Lieutenant Cameron, and included in its ranks Robert
Moffat, a grandson of Dr. Moffat's, who (as has been already stated)
fell early a sacrifice to fever. The members of the Expedition suffered
much from sickness; it was broken up at Unyanyembe, when the party
bearing the remains of Dr. Livingstone was met. The other party, under
command of Lieutenant Grandy, was to go to the West Coast, start from
Loanda, strike the Congo, and move on to Lake Lincoln. This Expedition
was fitted out solely at the cost of Mr. Young. He was deeply concerned
for the safety of his friend, knowing how he was hated by the
slave-traders whose iniquities he had exposed, and thinking it likely
that if he once reached Lake Lincoln he would make for the west coast
along the Congo. The purpose of these Expeditions is carefully explained
in a letter addressed to Dr. Livingstone by Sir Henry Rawlinson, then
President of the Royal Geographical Society:
"LONDON, _November_ 20, 1872.
"DEAR DR. LIVINGSTONE,--You will no doubt have heard of Sir
Bartle Frere's deputation to Zanzibar long before you receive
this, and you will have learnt with heartfelt satisfaction
that there is now a definite prospect of the infamous East
African slave-trade being suppressed. For this great end, if
it be achieved, we shall be mainly indebted to your recent
letters, which have had a powerful effect on the public mind
in England, and have thus stimulated the action of the
Government. Sir Bartle will keep you informed of his
arrangements, if there are any means of communicating with
the interior, and I am sure you will assist him to the utmost
of your power in carrying out the good work in which he
is engaged.
"It was a great disappointment to us that Lieutenant Dawson's
Expedition, which we fitted out in the beginning of the year
with such completeness, did not join you at Unyanyembe, for
it could not have failed to be of service to you in many
ways. We are now trying to aid you with a second Expedition
under Lieutenant Cameron, whom we have sent out under Sir
Bartle's orders, to join you if possible in the vicinity of
Lake Tanganyika, and attend to your wishes in respect to his
further movements. We leave it entirely to your discretion
whether you like to keep Mr. Cameron with you or to send him
on to the Victoria Nyanza, or any other points that you are
unable to visit yourself. Of course the great point of
interest connected with your present exploration is the
determination of the lower course of the Lualaba. Mr. Stanley
still adheres to the view, which you formerly held, that it
drains into the Nile; but if the levels which you give are
correct, this is impossible. At any rate, the opinion of the
identity of the Congo and Lualaba is now becoming so
universal that Mr. Young has come forward with a donation of
£2000 to enable us to send another Expedition to your
assistance up that river, and Lieutenant Grandy, with a crew
of twenty Kroomen, will accordingly be pulling up the Congo
before many months are over. Whether he will really be able
to penetrate to your unvisited lake, or beyond it to Lake
Lincoln, is, of course, a matter of great doubt; but it will
at any rate be gratifying to you to know that support is
approaching you both from the west and east. We all highly
admire and appreciate your indomitable energy and
perseverance, and the Geographical Society will do everything
in its power to support you, so as to compensate in some
measure for the loss you have sustained in the death of your
old friend Sir Roderick Murchison. My own tenure of office
expires in May, and it is not yet decided who is to succeed
me, but whoever may be our President, our interest in your
proceedings will not slacken. Mr. Waller will, I daresay,
have told you that we have just sent a memorial to Mr.
Gladstone, praying that a pension may be at once conferred
upon your daughters, and I have every hope that our prayer
may be successful. You will see by the papers, now sent to
you, that there has been much acrimonious discussion of late
on African affairs. I have tried myself in every possible way
to throw oil on the troubled waters, and begin to hope now
for something like peace. I shall be very glad to hear from
you if you can spare time to send me a line, and will always
keep a watchful eye over your interests.--I remain, yours
very truly, "H.C. RAWLINSON."
The remains were brought to Aden on board the "Calcutta," and thereafter
transferred to the P. and O. steamer "Malwa," which arrived at
Southampton on the 15th of April. Mr. Thomas Livingstone, eldest
surviving son of the Doctor, being then in Egypt on account of his
health[78], had gone on board at Alexandria. The body was conveyed to
London by special train and deposited in the rooms of the Geographical
Society in Saville Row.
[Footnote 78: Thomas never regained robust health. He died at
Alexandria, 15th March, 1876.]
In the course of the evening the remains were examined by Sir William
Fergusson and several other medical gentleman, including Dr. Loudon, of
Hamilton, whose professional skill and great kindness to his family had
gained for him a high place in the esteem and love of Livingstone. To
many persons it had appeared so incredible that the remains should have
been brought from the heart of Africa to London, that some conclusive
identification of the body seemed to be necessary to set all doubt at
rest. The state of the arm, the one that had been broken by the lion,
supplied the crucial evidence. "Exactly in the region of the attachment
of the deltoid to the humerus" (said Sir William Fergusson in a
contribution to the _Lancet_, April 18, 1874), "there were the
indications of an oblique fracture. On moving the arm there were the
indications of an ununited fracture. A closer identification and
dissection displayed the false joint that had so long ago been so well
recognized by those who had examined the arm in former days.... The
first glance set my mind at rest, and that, with the further
examination, made me as positive as to the identification of these
remains as that there has been among us in modern times one of the
greatest men of the human race--David Livingstone."
On Saturday, April 18, 1874, the remains of the great traveler were
committed to their resting-place near the centre of the nave of
Westminster Abbey. Many old friends of Livingstone came to be present,
and many of his admirers, who could not but avail themselves of the
opportunity to pay a last tribute of respect to his memory. The Abbey
was crowded in every part from which the spectacle might be seen. The
pall-bearers were Mr. H.M. Stanley, Jacob Wainwright, Sir T. Steele, Dr.
Kirk, Mr. W.F. Webb, Rev. Horace Waller, Mr. Oswell, and Mr. E.D. Young.
Two of these, Mr. Waller and Dr. Kirk, along with Dr. Stewart, who was
also present, had assisted twelve years before at the funeral of Mrs.
Livingstone at Shupanga. Dr. Moffat, too, was there, full of sorrowful
admiration. Amid a service which was emphatically impressive
throughout, the simple words of the hymn, sung to the tune of Tallis,
were peculiarly touching:
"O God of Bethel! by whose hand
Thy people still are fed,
Who through this weary pilgrimage
Hast all our fathers led."
The black slab that now marks the resting-place of Livingstone bears
this inscription:
BROUGHT BY FAITHFUL HANDS
OVER LAND AND SEA,
HERE RESTS
DAVID LIVINGSTONE,
MISSIONARY, TRAVELER, PHILANTHROPIST,
BORN MARCH 19, 1813,
AT BLANTYRE, LANARKSHIRE.
DIED MAY 4,[79] 1873,
AT CHITAMBO'S VILLAGE, ILALA.
[Footnote 79: In the _Last Journals_ the date is 1st May; on
the stone, 4th May. The attendants could not quite
determine the day.]
For thirty years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize
the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets,
and abolish the desolating slave-trade of Central Africa,
and where, with his last words he wrote:
"All I can say in my solitude is, may Heaven's rich blessing
come down on every one--American, English, Turk--
who will help to heal this open sore of the world."
Along the right border of the stone are the words:
TANTUS AMOR VERI, NIHIL EST QUOD NOSCERE MALIM
QUAM FLUVII CAUSAS PER SÆCULA TANTA LATEHTES.
And along the left border:
OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD,
THEM ALSO I MUST BRING, AND THEY SHALL HEAR MY VOICE.
On the 25th June, 1868, not far from the northern border of that lake
Bangweolo on whose southern shore he passed away, Dr. Livingstone came
on a grave in a forest. He says of it:
"It was a little rounded mound, as if the occupant sat in it in the
usual native way; it was strewed over with flour, and a number of the
large blue beads put on it; a little path showed that it had visitors.
This is the sort of grave I should prefer: to be in the still, still
forest, and no hand ever disturb my bones. The graves at home always
seemed to me to be miserable, especially those in the cold, damp clay,
and without elbow-room; but I have nothing to do but wait till He who is
over all decides where I have to lay me down and die. Poor Mary lies on
Shupanga brae, 'and beeks fornent the sun.'"
"He who is over all" decreed that while his heart should lie in a leafy
forest, in such a spot as he loved, his bones should repose in a great
Christian temple, where many, day by day, as they read his name, would
recall his noble Christian life, and feel how like he was to Him of whom
it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord
hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek: He hath sent me to
bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all
that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord; that He might be glorified."
"Droop half-mast colors, bow, bareheaded crowds,
As this plain coffin o'er the side is slung,
To pass by woods of masts and ratlined shrouds,
As erst by Afric's trunks, liana-hung.
'Tis the last mile of many thousands trod
With failing strength but never-failing will,
By the worn frame, now at its rest with God,
That never rested from its fight with ill.
Or if the ache of travel and of toil
Would sometimes wring a short, sharp cry of pain
From agony of fever, blain, and boil,
'Twas but to crush it down and on again!
He knew not that the trumpet he had blown
Out of the darkness of that dismal land,
Had reached and roused an army of its own
To strike the chains from the slave's fettered hand.
Now we believe, he knows, sees all is well;
How God had stayed his will and shaped his way,
To bring the light to those that darkling dwell
With gains that life's devotion well repay.
Open the Abbey doors and bear him in
To sleep with king and statesman, chief and sage,
The missionary come of weaver-kin,
But great by work that brooks no lower wage.
He needs no epitaph to guard a name
Which men shall prize while worthy work is known;
He lived and died for good--be that his fame:
Let marble crumble: this is Living--stone."--_Punch_.
Eulogiums on the dead are often attempts, sometimes sufficiently clumsy,
to conceal one-half of the truth and fill the eye with the other. In the
case of Livingstone there is really nothing to conceal. In tracing his
life in these pages we have found no need for the brilliant colors of
the rhetorician, the ingenuity of the partisan, or the enthusiasm of the
hero-worshiper. We have felt, from first to last, that a plain, honest
statement of the truth regarding him would be a higher panegyric than
any ideal picture that could be drawn. The best tributes paid to his
memory by distinguished countrymen were the most literal--we might
almost say the most prosaic. It is but a few leaves we can reproduce of
the many wreaths that were laid on his tomb.
Sir Bartle Frere, as President of the Royal Geographical Society, after
a copious notice of his life, summed it up in these words: "As a whole,
the work of his life will surely be held up in ages to come as one of
singular nobleness of design, and of unflinching energy and
self-sacrifice in execution. It will be long ere any one man will be
able to open so large an extent of unknown land to civilized mankind.
Yet longer, perhaps, ere we find a brighter example of a life of such
continued and useful self-devotion to a noble cause."
In a recent letter to Dr. Livingstone's eldest daughter, Sir Bartle
Frere (after saying that he was first introduced to Dr. Livingstone by
Mr. Phillip, the painter, as "one of the noblest men he had ever met,"
and rehearsing the history of his early acquaintance) remarks:
"I could hardly venture to describe my estimate of his character as a
Christian further than by saying that I never met a man who fulfilled
more completely my idea of a perfect Christian gentleman,--actuated in
what he thought and said and did by the highest and most chivalrous
spirit, modeled on the precepts of his great Master and Exemplar.
"As a man of science, I am less competent to judge, for my knowledge of
his work is to a great extent second-hand; but derived, as it is, from
observers like Sir Thomas Maclear, and geographers like Arrowsmith, I
believe him to be quite unequaled as a scientific traveler, in the care
and accuracy with which he observed. In other branches of science I had
more opportunities of satisfying myself, and of knowing how keen and
accurate was his observation, and how extensive his knowledge of
everything connected with natural science; but every page of his
journals, to the last week of his life, testified to his wonderful
natural powers and accurate observation. Thirdly, as a missionary and
explorer I have always put him in the very first rank. He seemed to me
to possess in the most wonderful degree that union of opposite qualities
which were required for such a work as opening out heathen Africa to
Christianity and civilization. No man had a keener sympathy with even
the most barbarous and unenlightened; none had a more ardent desire to
benefit and improve the most abject. In his aims, no man attempted, on a
grander or more thorough scale, to benefit and improve those of his race
who most needed improvement and light. In the execution of what he
undertook, I never met his equal for energy and sagacity, and I feel
sure that future ages will place him among the very first of those
missionaries, who, following the apostles, have continued to carry the
light of the gospel to the darkest regions of the world, throughout the
last 1800 years. As regards the value of the work he accomplished, it
might be premature to speak,--not that I think it possible I can
over-estimate it, but because I feel sure that every year will add fresh
evidence to show how well-considered were the plans he took in hand, and
how vast have been the results of the movements he set in motion."
The generous and hearty appreciation of Livingstone by the medical
profession was well expressed in the words of the _Lancet_: "Few men
have disappeared from our ranks more universally deplored, as few have
served in them with a higher purpose, or shed upon them the lustre of a
purer devotion."
Lord Polwarth, in acknowledging a letter from Dr. Livingstone's
daughter, thanking him for some words on her father, wrote thus: "I have
long cherished the memory of his example, and feel that the truest
beauty was his essentially Christian spirit. Many admire in him the
great explorer and the noble-hearted philanthropist; but I like to think
of him, not only thus, but as a man who was a servant of God, loved his
Word intensely, and while he spoke to men of God, spoke more to God
of men,
"His memory will never perish, though the first freshness, and the
impulse it gives just now, may fade; but his prayers will be had in
everlasting remembrance, and unspeakable blessings will yet flow to that
vast continent he opened up at the expense of his life. God called and
qualified him for a noble work, which, by grace, he nobly fulfilled, and
we can love the honored servant, and adore the gracious Master."
Lastly, we give the beautiful wreath of Florence Nightingale, also in
the form of a letter to Dr. Livingstone's daughter:
"LONDON, _Feb._ 18_th_,1874.
"DEAR MISS LIVINGSTONE,--I am only one of all England which
is feeling with you and for you at this moment.
"But Sir Bartle Frere encourages me to write to you.
"We cannot help still yearning to hear of some hope that your
great father may be still alive.
"God knows; and in knowing that He knows who is all wisdom,
goodness, and power, we must find our rest.
"He has taken away, if at last it be as we fear, the greatest
man of his generation, for Dr. Livingstone stood alone.
"There are few enough, but a few statesmen. There are few
enough, but a few great in medicine, or in art, or in poetry.
There are a few great travelers. But Dr. Livingstone stood
alone as the great Missionary Traveler, the bringer-in of
civilization; or rather the pioneer of civilization--he that
cometh before--to races lying in darkness.
"I always think of him as what John the Baptist, had he been
living in the nineteenth century, would have been.
"Dr. Livingstone's fame was so world-wide that there were
other nations who understood him even better than we did.
"Learned philologists from Germany, not at all orthodox in
their opinions, have yet told me that Dr. Livingstone was the
only man who understood races, and how to deal with them for
good; that he was the one true missionary. We cannot console
ourselves for our loss. He is irreplaceable.
"It is not sad that he should have died out there. Perhaps it
was the thing, much as he yearned for home, that was the
fitting end for him. He may have felt it so himself.
"But would that he could have completed that which he offered
his life to God to do!
"If God took him, however, it was that his life was completed
in God's sight; his work finished, the most glorious work of
our generation.
"He has opened those countries for God to enter in. He struck
the first blow to abolish a hideous slave-trade.
"He, like Stephen, was the first martyr.
"'He climbed the steep ascent of heaven,
Through peril, toil, and pain;
O God! to us may grace be given
To follow in his train!'
"To us it is very dreary, not to have seen him again, that he
should have had none of us by him at the last; no last word
or message.
"I feel this with regard to my dear father and one who was
more than mother to me, Mrs. Bracebridge, who went with me to
the Crimean war, both of whom were taken from me last month.
"How much more must we feel it, with regard to out great
discoverer and hero, dying so far off!
"But does he regret it? How much he must know now! how much
he must have enjoyed!
"Though how much we would give to know _his_ thoughts,
_alone with God_, during the latter days of his life.
"May we not say, with old Baxter (something altered from that
verse)?
"'My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But 'tis enough that _Christ knows all_,
And he will be with _Him_.'
"Let us think only of him and of his present happiness, his
eternal happiness, and may God say to us: 'Let not your heart
be troubled,' Let us exchange a 'God bless you,' and fetch a
real blessing from God in saying so.
"Florence Nightingale"