The Last Journey.’
R. LIVINGSTONE had accompanied his friend to Unyamyembe, where he was to wait until the latter should send him supplies and attendants from the coast. Here his stay was a somewhat dreary one. He had to wait much longer for his goods and men than he had anticipated, and there was so little to do that it was particularly trying for one of his intensely active temperament. Five days after Stanley’s departure, occurred his fifty-ninth birthday, the entry for which day thus appears in his journal.
“March 19th, 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.”
On the first of May he finished a letter to the Vew York Herald, trying to enlist American zeal to put a stop to the east coast slave-trade, and prayed for God’s blessing to go with the effort. The concluding words of this letter were these: “ 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.” lt was felt that nothing could better represent the man than these words, which have been, consequently, inscribed on the tablet erected to his memory near his grave in Westminster Abbey. It was not noticed until some time after this selection had been made, that Livingstone wrote it exactly one year before his death, which occurred May Ist, 1873.
Sometimes amid the universal darkness and ignorance around him it is hard to believe that Africa shall ever be won to Christ, but he strengthens his own faith with such words as these, entered in his journal May 138th.
“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 witt keep His word; then I can come and humbly present my petition, and it will be all right. Doubt is here inadmissible, surely.—David Livingstone.”
Again, he writes of the way in which to gain the good will of the people, and thus secure a foundation for spiritual work among them. “June 21st. Nothing brings the Africans to place thorough confidence in Europeans, but a long course of well doing.... Goodness or unselfishness impresses their minds more than any kind of skill or power. They say, ‘ You have different hearts from ours; all black men’s hearts are bad, but yours are good.’ The prayer to Jesus for a new heart and right spirit at once commends itself as appropriate. Music has great influence on those who have musical ears, and often leads to conversion.”
Then follow such pathetic entries as these: “July 3d. Wearisome waiting, this; and yet the men can not be here before the middle or end of next month. I have been sorely let and hindered in this journey, but it may have all been for the best. I will trust in Him to whom I commit my way.
“July 5th. Weary! weary!
“July 7th. Waiting wearily here, and hoping that the good and loving Father of all may favor me, and help me to finish my work quickly and well.”
We also find from his journals that at this time Dr. Livingstone’s mind was in a state of perpetual doubt and perplexity in regard to the Lualaba river, fearing that after all it might be the Congo. We are almost thankful that he never had his doubts solved, it would have been such a disappointment for him to have found for a certainty that this great river was not the Nile, even had he also known that henceforth it was to be known as the Livingstone river, and would perpetuate the memory of his life and labors for Africa.
In a letter to a friend he writes in reference to his endeavors to do all in his power towards suppressing the slave-trade: “Tome it seems to be said, ‘If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are 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.”
And again: “No one can estimate the amount of Godpleasing 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.”
His letters to the last show that bis desire to discover the sources of the Nile was only as a means of enabling him to open his mouth with power among men, and that the great desire of his heart was to arouse public feeling against the slave-trade, and to get that great hindrance to missionary effort and good of every kind forever swept away. Among the last words that he ever wrote were these: “TI would forget all my cold, hunger, suffering and trials, if I could be the means of putting a stop to this cursed traffic.”
At last Dr. Livingstone’s escort arrived, among them Jacob Wainwright, who had been educated at the Nassick school, and who afterwards accompanied his master’s body to England, and was one of the pall-bearers at the funeral in Westminster Abbey. To him we also owe the earliest narrative that appeared of the last eight months of Dr. Livingstone’s life. This time Livingstone is not disappointed in his followers, whom he finds to be both faithful and capable.
It was in August that the party left Unyamyembe, proceeding towards Lakes Tanganyika and Bangweolo. Little of incident occurred on the first part of the march, but as the season advanced, the cold, rainy weather made their progress a perpetual struggle. It rained as if nothing but rain were ever known in the water-shed. The path lay across flooded rivers and long stretches of spongy marshland, and the inhabitants of the regions through which they passed often refused them food, and deceived them as to the way. Once amass of furious ants attacked Livingstone by night, driving him from hut to hut in desperation.
Most constitutions would have succumbed after a few weeks of such exposure, and indeed, there is much sickness in the party. As for Livingstone, his sufferings are beyond all previous experience, but still he keeps on his way, ‘and keeps his men together, showing an influence over them that is simply wonderful.
On his last birthday, March 19th, 1873, he makes the following entry in his journal: ‘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, oh! my good Lord Jesus.”
Anda few days later: “Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God and go forward”.
But at last there is a limit to the endurance of even an “iron” constitution, although fortified as it was in Livingstone’s case by an almost indomitable will, and his weakness at the beginning of April is pitiful. Still in spite of intense pain and bodily weakness he kept on his way, even when so exhausted that he had to be carried in a palanquin. The country was but a poor one at best, and was now flooded by heavy rains, so that even upon so called “dry land” the men often had to wade knee-deep in water as they carried their master onward.
On the 27th of April Dr. Livingstone wrote in his journal the last words Ke ever penned:
“Knocked up and remain—recover—sent to buy milchgoats. We are onthe banks of the Molilamo.”
Almost nothing could be found suited to the sick man’s needs. Though suffering from intolerable thirst, water fit to drink was often unattainable, and the milch-goats were sought in vain; and so they pushed on for a day or two longer.
The word “recover” shows that Livingstone had no anficipation of immediate death. It has been observed that such cases of malarial poisoning are usually unattended with such expectation, or with such messages to friends and expressions of faith as would be natural to Christian men, did they realize the near approach of death. But where one is ready to go, it matters little how suddenly the messenger calls him hence.
April 29th was the last day of the great explorer’s travels upon earth, and then he had to be lifted from his hut to the palanquin. At last they reached Chitambo’s village in Ilala, where he had to lie under the eaves of a house in a drizzling rain till a hut could be prepared for him. Then he was laid on a rude bed in the hut for the night. The next day he lay quietly all day, the attendants knowing that death was not far off. During the early part of the night following, nothing occurred to attract attention, but about four in the morning the boy who lay at his door keeping watch called in alarm for Susi, one of his old servants, fearing that their master was dead. By the light of the candle still burning, they saw him kneeling by his bedside as if in the act of prayer, his head buried in his hands on the pillow. Praying as he went, he had gone on his last journey, and without a single attendant. Alone, yet not alone, for He who had sustained him through so many trials and dangers had gone with him through the “ swelling of Jordan,” and brought him safe to the celestial country,