The Personal Life Of David Livingstone

1853-

from Chiboque--from another chief--Livingstone ill of fever--At the Quango--Attachment of followers--"The good time coming"--Portuguese settlements--Great kindness of the Portuguese--Arrives at Loanda--Received by Mr. Gabriel--His great friendship--No letters--News through Mr. Gabri

every trouble, and to be cowed by any chief that wore a threatening face. Worse if possible, Livingstone himself was in wretched health. During this part of the journey he had constant attacks of intermittent fever [40], accompanied in the latter stages of the road with dysentery of the most distressing kind. In the intervals of fever he was often depressed alike in body and in mind. Often the party were destitute of food of any sort, and never had they food suitable for a fever-stricken invalid. The vexations he encountered were of no common kind: at starting, the greater part of his medicines was stolen, much though he needed them; in the course of the journey, his pontoon was left behind; at one time, while he was under the influence of fever, his riding-ox threw him, and he fell heavily on his head; at another, while crossing a river, the ox tossed him into the water; the heavy rains, and the necessity of wading

r of attacks w

he minded little, but he was vexed to be able to take so few book

onstitute my stock. The last constitutes my chief resource; but the want of other mental pabulum is felt severely. There is little to interest in the conversat

ey. The writing is so neat and clear that it might almost be taken for lithograph. Occasionally there is a page with letters beginning to sprawl, as if one of those times had come when he tells us that he-could

the habits of the hippopotamus. Notes bearing on the character, the superstitions, and the feelings of the natives are of frequent occurrence. The explanation is, that Livingstone put down everything as it came, reserving the arranging and digesting of the whole to a future time. The extremely hurried manner in which he was obliged to write his Missionary Travels prevented him from fulfilling all his plan, and compelled him to content himself with giving to the public then what could be put most readily together. There are indications that he contemplated in the end a much more thorough use of his materials. It is not to be supposed that his published volumes co

banishing all thoughts of fever and fatigue. If only the blessings of the gospel could be spread among the people, what a glorious land it would become! But alas for the people! In most cases they were outwardly very repulsive. Never seen without a spear or a club in their hands, the men seemed only to delight in plunder and slaughter, and yet they were utter cowards. Their mouths were full of cursing and bitterness. The execrations they poured on each other were incredible. In very wantonness, when they met they would pelt each other with curses, and then perhaps burst into a fit of laughter. The women, like the men, went about in almost total nudity, and seemed to know no shame. So reckless were the chiefs of human life, that a man might be put to death for a single distasteful word; yet sometimes there were exhibitions of very tender feeling. The headman of a vil

ief was in the power of medicines acting as charms. They fully recognized the existence of the soul after death. Some of them believed in the metamorphosis of certain persons into alligators or hippopotamuses, or into lions. This belief could not be shaken by any arguments--at least on the par

return of the affection of the throat for which he had got his uvula excised, and the difficulty of speaking to tribes using different dialec

o, so that I could do nothing but roll from side to side in my miserable little tent,

ures of Abraham offering up Isaac, and other Bible scenes, enabled him to convey important truths in a way that attracted the people. It was, he says, the only service he was ever asked to repeat. The only uncomfortable feel

hing more were needed to bathe the soul in bliss than the sight of the perfection in working and goodness in planning of the great Father of our spirits. I need to be purified--fitted for the eternal, to which

uls were restored to freedom. As he proceeded he obtained but too plain evidence of the extent to which the slave traffic prevailed, uniformly finding that wherever slavers had bee

h he and his company appeared to be doomed. When he passed through the Chiboque country, the provisions were absolutely spent; there was no resource but to kill a riding-ox, a part of which, according to custom, was sent to the chief. Next day was Sunday. After service the chief sent an impu

was able to effect a temporary settlement. The chief sent them some food; then yams, a goat, fowl, and meat. Livingstone gave him a shawl, and two bunches of beads, and he seemed pleased. During these exciting scenes he felt no fever; but when they were ove

uence their minds, that the enterprise fail not, now that we have reached the very threshold of the Portuguese settlements. I am greatly distressed at this change, for what else can be done for this miserable land I do not see. It is shut. O Almighty God, help, help! and leave no

left peaceably, thankful for their deliverance, some of the men remarking, in view of it, that they were "children of Jesus," and Livingstone thanking God devoutly for his great mercy. Next day they were again stopped at the river Quango. The poor Makololo had parted in vain with their copper or

sincere he was in saying that he would die rather than give any of them up to captivity. And all his intercourse with them had been marked by similar proofs of his g

aspect of things, Livingstone could always loo

wilderness--Reformers before the Reformation, future missionaries will see conversions follow every sermon. We prepare the way for them. May they not forget the pioneers who worked in the thick gloom with few rays to cheer, except such as flow from faith in God's promises! We work for a glorious future which we are not destined to see--the golden age which has not been, but will yet be. We are only morning-stars shining in the dark, but the glorious morn will break, the good time coming yet. The present mission-stations will all be broken up. No matter how great the outcry against the instrumentality which God employs for his purposes, whether by French soldiery as in Tahiti, or tawny Boers as in South Africa, our duty is onward, onward, proclaiming God's Word whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. A few conversions show whether God's Spirit is in a mission or not. No mission which has his approbation is entirely unsuccessful. His purposes have been fulfilled, if we have been faithful. 'The nation or kingdom th

of wine he had taken in Africa. Another provided him with a suit of clothing. Livingstone invoked the blessing of Him who said, "I was naked and ye clothed me." His Journal is profuse in its admiration of some of the Portuguese traders, w

wn him such marked attention. Afterward, the inexorable logic of facts proved too strong, even for his unsuspecting soul. But the kindness of the Portuguese was most genuine, and Living

prostrated him soon after his arrival at Loanda. In his Journal the warmest benedictions are poured on Mr. Gabriel, and blessings everlasting besought for his soul. One great disappointment he suffered at Loanda--not a single letter was awaiting him. His friends must have thought he could never reach it. This want of letters was a very frequent trial, especially to one who wrote so many, and of such length. The cordial friendship of Mr. Gabriel, ho

enefit the Christian cause in this country has derived from Dr. Livingstone's exertions. It is indeed fortunate for that sacred cause, and highly honorable to the London Missionary Society, when qualities and dispositions like his are employed in propagating its blessings among men. Irrespective, moreover, of his laudable and single-minded conduct as a minister of the Gospel, and his attainments in making observations which have determined t

his schemes for promoting lawful commerce, goes into ecstasies over a watch-chain which he had got from him, tells him the news of the battle of the Alma in the Crimea, in which his friend, Colonel Steele, had distinguished himself, and of the success of the Rae Expedition in finding the remains of the party under Sir John Franklin. In an official communication to Lord Clarendon, after Livingstone had left, Mr. Gabriel says, 5th August, 1855: "I am grieved to say that this

is early days, sharing the feeling then so prevalent in his class, he had been used to think of epauleted gentlemen as idlers, or worse--"fruges consumere nati" Personal acquaintance, as in so many other cases, rubbed off the prejudice. In many ways Livingstone's mind was broadening. His intens

ntery, the protracted absence of those for whom he pined, were not to be thought of when he had a duty to these poor men. Besides, he had hot yet accomplished his object. He had, indeed, discovered a way by his friend Sekelétu might sell his tusks to far greater advantage, and which would thus help to introduce a legitimate traffic among the Makololo, and expel the slave-trade; but he had discovered no healthy locality for a mission, nor any unexceptiona

, written a month afterward, gives his i

t fail to comfort you. I got everything in Loanda I could desire; and were there only a wagon-path for us, this would be as good an opening into the interior as we could wish. I remained rather a long time in the city in consequence of a very severe attack of fever and dy

n, gave me an order for ten oxen as provisions on the way home to the Zambesi. This is all to encourage the natives to trade freely with the coast, and will have a good effect in increasing our influence for that which excels everything earthly. Everything has, by God's gracious blessing, proved more auspicious than I anticipated. We have a most warm-hearted friend in Mr. Gabriel. He acted a brother's part, and now wr

nts in one district called Ambaca can read and write well. They were first taught by the Roman Catholic missionaries, and now teach each other so well, it is considered a shame in an Ambacista not to be able to write his own name at least. But they have no Bibles. They are building a church at Ambaca, and another is in course of erection here, though they cannot get any priests. May God grant that we may be useful in some degree in this

LIVIN

determine his exact positions, and transmitting elaborate letters to the Geographical Society. His astronomical observati

nscribing. But upon the whole I do not hesitate to assert that no explorer on record has determined his path with the precision you have accomplished." A year afterward, 11th August, 1855, but with reference to papers received from Sekelétu's place, Mr. Maclear details what he had done in reducing his observations, preparing abstracts of th

n miraculous. Perhaps there is nothing on record of the kind, and it can only be explained by Divine interference for a good purpose. O may life be contin

erves every encouragement in the power of his country to give. He has done that which few other travelers in Africa

estified its appreciation by awarding him their gold medal--the highest honor they had to bestow. The occasion was one of great interest. From the chair, Lord Ellesmere spoke of Livingstone's work in science as but subordinate to those higher en

rast is as great between such military array and the solitary grandeur of the missionary's progress, as it is between the actual achievements of the two--between the rough knowledge obtained by the Portugu

t blind in consequence of a blow received on the eye from a branch of a tree in riding through the forest. Notwithstanding, he was engaged in writing a despatch to the Geographical Society, through Sir Roderi