Search for the Nile Sources
R. LIVINGSTONE now feels that his immediate efforts thust be directed towards rousing such a public sentiment against the Portuguese slave-trade that it shall beas perilous upon land as English ships have already made it upon the ocean. But the hope of obtaining access to the heart of Africa by another route than that of the Portuguese settlements is still in his heart, and as soon as possible he will return to look for a new route to the interior.
On arriving in England he spent a year upon his book, The Zambesi and its Tributaries. His intention was at first merely to write a small volume, a blast of the trumpet against the monstrous iniquity of the Portuguese slave-trade, but gradually it swelled to a goodly octavo, and embraced the history of the Zambesi expedition. The name of Charles Livingstone also appears on the title-page, his brother of that name having been with him part of the time during this expedition, and his journals having been made use of in the writing of the book.
Besides this work Dr.. Livingstone did not fail to make use of such public opportunities as must come to a now famous explorer, in pleading for Africa.
It was the desire of his friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, by whom he was greatly influenced, that he should now completely lay aside his missionary character, and devote himself altogether to the geographical problem of determin- LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. ra
ing the water-sued of the continent, and the true sources of the Nile. We can see how Livingstone regarded this proposition by a significant entry in his journal of January 7th, 1865: “Answered Sir Roderick about going out. Said I
could only feel in the way of duty by working as a missionary.” It did fall in with his intentions, however, to explore the region in which be believed the sources of the Nile would be found, and he therefore entered into an agreement with the Geographical Society to undertake, as a part of his work, the task of determining the water-shed of central Africa. For this he received a grant of £500 from the society, another of the same amount from the government, and the honor of a Consul's title without salary. For most of the expense incidental to so great an undertaking he must rely upon his own means, or trust to Providence.
In June of this year he paid “the last tribute to a dear, good mother,” helping to lay her in the grave, as she had wished he might.
Before leaving Scotland Livingstone made a little speech to some school-children, closing with what had been the watch-word of his own life, “ Fear God and work hard.” These were the last public words that he ever uttered in his native country.
Quitting England in the autumn of 1865, he left Zanzibar to enter Africa for the last time on March 19th, 1866, his fifty-third birthday. “I set out on this journey,” he observes, “ with a strong presentiment that I should never finish it. The feeling did not interfere with me in reference to my duty, but it made me think a great deal of the future state, and come to the conclusion that possibly the change is not so great as we have usually believed. The appearances of Him who is all in all to us were especially human; and the prophet whom St. John wanted to worship had work to do, just as we have, and did it.”
Our explorer chooses, this time, to have no white companions, but takes with him such a retinue of black attendants as is necessary for the journey. Eight of them are young liberated slaves from the missionary school at Nassick, near Bombay, some of whom displayed such fidelity to their master in life and death as to win the admiration of the world. But they were supplemented at Zanzibar by Johanna men and sepoys, the former of whom were thieves, and the latter so intolerable that Livingstone soon dismissed them altogether, and detachments subsequently sent to him proved to be no better.
The exploring party dived into the depths of the unknown continent, and for months nothing was heard of them. Finally one of the Johanna men arrived at Zanzibar with circumstantial news that Dr. Livingstone had been murdered on the shores of Lake Nyassa. Unwilling to go any farther with the party, and freely permitted to return, he had invented this story to cover his own desertion. Although the newspapers were full of obituary notices, the report was only half-credited in England, and to relieve the suspense a search-party was sent out in quest of him. Although not finding Dr. Livingstone, they gained abundant evidence that the story was false, and in 1868 letters came from the missionary himself, telling of the desertion of the Johanna men, and of the discovery of Lakes Moero and Bangweolo.
We may learn something of the trials he experienced, and of his life in general in the meantime, by the following extracts from the journals which were entrusted to Stanley when he left him.
LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. (@
January 20th, ’67, after telling how two of the men had deserted, taking what could least be spared, the medicinebox, which was undoubtedly thrown away as soon as they came to examine their booty, he adds, “I felt as if I had now received the sentence of death, like poor Bishop Mackenzie.” The bishop had had all his drugs destroyed by the upsetting of a canoe in which was his case of medicines, and without these had speedily succumbed to the dreaded African fever. In Dr. Livingstone’s case also the loss of his medicines was probably the beginning of the end, and his system lost the wonderful power of recovery it had hitherto shown.
“January 27th. In changing my dress this a. mu. I was frightened at my own emaciation.”
“ April Ist, 67. I am excessively weak; can not walk without tottering, and have constant singing in the head, but the Highest will lead me farther.... After I had been a few days here [ had a fit of insensibility, which shows the power of fever without medicine. I found myself floundering outside my hut, and, unable to get in, I tried to lift myself from my back by laying hold of two posts at the entrance, but when I got nearly upright I let them go, and fell back heavily on my head on a box. The boys had seen the wretched state J was in, and hung a blanket at the entrance of the hut, that no strangers might see my helplessness; some hours elapsed before I could recognize where I was.”
Besides suffering from the loss of his medicine-chest, Livingstone was really half-starved. He had no tea, coffee, or sugar, and hardly anything to eat except a coarse, tasteless kind of African maize, a most unsatisfying food, which left him constantly hungry.
U4 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
The two geographical feats of the year 1867 were the discovery of Lake Moero, and the first sight or Lake Tanganyika. In 1868 he thus quietly records the discovery of Lake Bangweolo. “On the 18th of July I walked a little way out, and saw the shores of the lake for the first time, thankful that I had come safely hither.”
New Year's day, 1869, found Livingstone laboring under a more severe attack of illness than any he had heretofore experienced..
Six weeks of pneumonia left evils behind from which he never fully recovered. So ill was he that he completely lost count of the days of the week and month. Writing of this experience, he says: “I saw myself lying dead in the way to Ujiji.... When I think of my children the lines ring through my head perpetually:
“T shall look into your faces, And listen to what you say; And be often very near you, When you think I’m far away.”
In addition to his other trials, it happened again and again, that after wearily marching scores, or even hundreds of miles to reach new supplies ordered from the coast, it was only to find his stores broken open by the faithless natives, his goods scattered far and wide, and even his letters lost. Truly in such circumstances one had need of an almost infinite patience, but patient, quiet endurance was one of Livingstone’s strong points.
Then to all this must be added the trial of hope deferred, as repeatedly the key to the problem he was endeavoring to solve seemed to be almost within reach, only to elude him after all. Perhaps if he had foreseen the difficulties of the enterprise, he might not have deemed it worth the price it cost; but he had given his promise to the Geographical Society, and, as we have seen, he was a man not easily daunted. Moreover he hada strong impression that if he could only find the real sources of the Nile, he could acquire such influence that new weight would be given to his pleadings for Africa.
Wherever he went, he had some opportunities to make known God’s love as manifested in His only Son, although the seed sown seemed seldom to take root. He was also constantly gaining fresh information in regard to the country and the slave-trade.;
Five weary years from 1866 to 1871 were thus spent ‘in traversing back and forth the basins of Lakes Nyassa, Tanganyika, Moero and Bangweolo, one year after another being begun with the pathetic prayer that th7s year he might be permitted to finish his task and go home. Many difficulties surrounded him; massacres and atrocities were of frequent occurrence; the Arab slave-dealers thwarted him whenever it was possible; his feet were lacerated by the hard march, and his strength exhausted by frequent attacks of illness. Once he lay for eighty days in his hut, unable to proceed further, harrowed by the wickedness about him which he could not prevent, thinking about the sources of the Nile, getting information from the natives, striving to do some good among the people, and reading the Bible. He read it through four times in about a year, while in the Manyuema country. Little or no news from England arrived to cheer him. Once he received a solitary letter; forty had been lost on the way!
And now comes the crowning disappointment, which has been well likened to that which Moses must have felt when looking from Mt. Nebo upon the promised land he was not permitted to enter. Dr. Livingstone had now come to the Lualaba, which he hoped might be the Nile, although he feared it might be the Congo, as we now know it to be. A voyage down this river would settle the question. It would finish his task, and then at last he might go home; but here his men mutinied and refused to go further. All his patience and gentleness failed to have any effect upon them, and there was nothing to do but to retrace his weary way in much suffering and bodily weakness over five hundred miles to Ujiji. 4
This journey was a most wretched one. Amid the wide spread desolation caused by the slave-traders, it was impossible for Livingstone to make the natives understand that he did not belong to the same set. Ambushes were set in the forest for him and his company. Three times in one day did Livingstone escape impending death. Twice spears were thrown, once grazing his neck, the second time falling but a foot away. A large tree to which fire had been applied for the purpose of felling it, also came down within a yard of him.
The one offset to the disappointment of returning to Ujiji, was Dr. Livingstone’s confident expectation that he should there find fresh supplies, and the medicine he so much needed. Arrived at last at Ujiji, “a mere ruckle of bones,” as he himself says, he finds that once more his supplies have all been plundered and sold. The wretch, Shereef, an Arab trader to whom they had been consigned, had sold off the whole, not leaving a single yard of calico out of 3000, or one string of beads out of 700 pounds. He excused himself by saying that he had divined on the Koran, and found out that Livingstone was dead, and therefore would need his goods no more. The poor traveller had indeed fallen among thieves, and it seemed as if there were none to come to his relief. But, nevertheless, help was coming to him even now.