The Personal Life of David Livingstone/CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA.
A.D. 1853-1854.
Difficulties and hardships of journey--His traveling kit--Four books--His Journal--Mode of traveling--Beauty of country--Repulsiveness of the people--Their religious belief--The negro--Preaching--The magic-lantern--Loneliness of feeling--Slave-trade--Management of the natives--Danger 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. Gabriel--Livingstone becomes aquainted with naval officers--Resolves to go back to Linyanti and make for East Coast--Letter to his wife--Correspondence with Mr. Maclear--Accuracy of his observations--Sir John Herschel--Geographical Society award their gold metal--Remarks of Lord Ellesmere.
The journey from Linyanti to Loanda occupied from the 11th November,
1853, to 31st May, 1854. It was in many ways the most difficult and
dangerous that Livingstone had yet performed, and it drew out in a very
wonderful manner the rare combination of qualities that fitted him for
his work. The route had never been traversed, so far as any trustworthy
tradition went, by any European. With the exception of a few of
Sekelétu's tusks, the oxen needed for carrying, and a trifling amount of
coffee, cloth, beads, etc., Livingstone had neither stores of food for
his party, nor presents with which to propitiate the countless tribes of
rapacious and suspicious savages that lined his path. The Barotse men
who accompanied him, usually called the "Makololo," though on the whole
faithful and patient, "the best that ever accompanied me," were a burden
in one sense, as much as a help in another; chicken-hearted, ready to
succumb to 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 through streams three or four times a day, kept
him almost constantly wet; and occasionally, to vary the annoyance,
mosquitos would assail him as fiercely as if they had been waging a war
of extermination. The most critical moments of peril, demanding the
utmost coolness and most dauntless courage, would sometimes occur during
the stage of depression after fever; it was then he had to extricate
himself from savage warriors, who vowed that he must go back, unless he
gave them an ox, a gun, or a man. The ox he could ill spare, the gun not
at all, and as for giving the last--a man--to make a slave of, he would
sooner die. At the best, he was a poor ragged skeleton when he reached
those who had hearts to feel for him and hands to help him. Had he not
been a prodigy of patience, faith, and courage, had he not known where
to find help in all time of his tribulation, he would never have reached
the haunts of civilized men.
[Footnote 40: The number of attacks was thirty-one.]
His traveling-kit was reduced to the smallest possible ilk; that he minded little, but he was vexed to be able to take so few books. A few days after setting out, he writes in his private Journal;
"I feel the want of books in this journey more than anything
else. A Sichuana Pentateuch, a lined journal, Thomson's
Tables, a Nautical Almanac, and a Bible, constitute 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 conversation of the people. Loud disputes often about
the women, and angry altercations in which the same string of
abuse is used, are more frequent than anything else."
The "lined journal," of which mention is made here, was probably the most wonderful thing of the kind ever taken on such a journey. It is a strongly bound quarto volume of more then 800 pages, with a lock and key. 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 neither think nor speak, nor tell any one's name--possibly not even his own, if he had been asked it. He used to jot his observations on little note-books, and extend them when detained by rain or other causes.
The journal differs in some material respects from the printed record of this journey. It is much more explicit in setting forth the bad treatment he often received. When he spoke of these things to the public, he made constant use of the mantle of charity, and the record of many a bad deed and many a bad character is toned down. Naturally, too, the journal is more explicit on the subject of his own troubles, and more free in recording the play of his feelings. It does not hide the communings of his heart with his heavenly Father. It is built up in a random-rubble style; here a solemn prayer, in the next line a note of lunar observations; then a dissertation on 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 contained all that he deemed worthy of publication, or that a censure is due to those who reproduce some portions which he passed over. As to the neat and finished form in which the Journal exists, it was one of the many fruits of a strong habit of orderliness and self-respect which he had begun to learn at the hand of his mother, and which he practiced all his life. Even in the matter of personal cleanliness and dress he was uniformly most attentive in his wanderings among savages. "I feel certain," he said, "that the lessons of cleanliness rigidly instilled by my mother in childhood helped to maintain that respect which these people entertain for European ways."
The course of the journey was first along the river Zambesi, as he had gone before with Sekelétu, to its junction with the Leeba, then along the Leeba to the country of Lobale on the left and Londa on the right. Then, leaving the canoes, he traveled on oxback first N.N.W. and then W. till he reached St. Paul de Loanda on the coast. His Journal, like the published volume, is full of observations on the beauty and wonderful capacity and productiveness of the country through which he passed after leaving the river. Instinctively he would compare it with Scotland. A beautiful valley reminds him of his native vale of Clyde, seen from the spot where Mary Queen of Scots saw the battle of Langside; only the Scottish scene is but a miniature of the much greater and richer landscape before him. At the sight of the mountains he would feel his Highland blood rushing through him, 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 village once showed him, with much apparent feeling, the burnt house of a child of his, adding,--"She perished in it, and we have all removed from our own huts and built here round her, in order to weep over her grave." From some of the people he received great kindness; others were quite different. Their character, in short, was a riddle, and would need to be studied more. But the prevalent aspect of things was both distressing and depressing. If he had thought of it continually, he would have become the victim of melancholy. It was a characteristic of his large and buoyant nature, that, besides having the resource of spiritual thought, he was able to make use of another divine corrective to such a tendency, to find delightful recreation in science, and especially in natural history, and by this means turn the mind away for a time from the dark scenes of man's depravity.
The people all seemed to recognize a Supreme Being; but it was only occasionally, in times of distress, that they paid Him homage. They had no love for Him like that of Christians for Jesus--only terror. Some of them, who were true negroes, had images, simple but grotesque. Their strongest belief 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 part of man. The negroes proper interested him greatly; they were numerous, prolific, and could not be extirpated. He almost regretted that Mr. Moffat had translated the Bible into Sichuana. That language might die out; but the negro might sing, "Men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever."
The incessant attacks of fever from which Livingstone suffered in this journey, the continual rain occurring at that season of the year, the return of the affection of the throat for which he had got his uvula excised, and the difficulty of speaking to tribes using different dialects, prevented him from, holding his Sunday services as regularly as before. Such entries in his Journal as the following are but too frequent:
"_Sunday, 19th_.--Sick all Sunday and unable to move. Several
of the people were ill too, so that I could do nothing but
roll from side to side in my miserable little tent, in which,
with all the shade we could give it, the thermometer stood
upward of 90°."
But though little able to preach, Livingstone made the most of an apparatus which in some degree compensated his lack of speech--a magic-lantern which his friend, a former fellow-traveler, Mr. Murray, had given him. The pictures 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 feeling it raised was on the part of those who stood on the side where the slides were drawn out. They were terrified lest the figures, as they passed along, should take possession of them, entering like spirits into their bodies!
The loneliness of feeling engendered by the absence of all human sympathy was trying. "Amidst all the beauty and loveliness with which I am surrounded, there is still a feeling of want in the soul,--as if something 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 my soul stretches away, in ever returning longings. I need to be made more like my blessed Saviour, to serve my God with all my powers. Look upon me, Spirit of the living God, and supply all Thou seest lacking."
It was Livingstone's great joy to begin this long journey with a blessed act of humanity, boldly summoning a trader to release a body of captives, so that no fewer than eighteen souls 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 been, the natives were more difficult to deal with and more exorbitant in their demands. Slaves in chains were sometimes met with--a sight which some of his men had never beheld before.
Livingstone's successful management of the natives constituted the crowning wonder of this journey. Usually the hearts of the chiefs were wonderfully turned to him, so that they not only allowed him to pass on, but supplied him with provisions. But there were some memorable occasions on which 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 impudent message demanding much more valuable presents. His people collected round Livingstone, brandishing their weapons, and one young man all but brought down his sword on his head. It seemed impossible to avoid a fight; yet Livingstone's management prevailed--the threatened storm passed away.
Some days after, in passing through a forest in the dominions of another chief, he and his people were in momentary expectation of an attack. They went to the chiefs village and spoke to the man himself; and here, on a Sunday, while ill of fever, Livingstone 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 over the constant wettings made him experience a sore sense of sinking, and this Sunday was a day "of perfect uselessness." Monday came, and while Livingstone was as low as possible, the inexorable chief renewed his demands. "It was," he says, "a day of torture."
"After talking nearly the whole day we gave the old chief an
ox, but he would not take it, but another. I was grieved
exceedingly to find that our people had become quite
disheartened, and all resolved to return home. All I can say
has no effect. I can only look up to God to influence 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 not this wretched people to the
slave-dealer and Satan. The people have done well hitherto, I
see God's good influence in it. Hope He has left only for a
little season. No land needs the gospel more than this
miserable portion. I hope I am not to be left to fail in
introducing it."
On Wednesday morning, however, final arrangements were made, and the party passed on in peace. Ten days later, again on a Sunday, they were once more pestered by a great man demanding dues. Livingstone replied by simply defying him. He might kill him, but God would judge. And on the Monday they 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 ornaments, and Livingstone with his razors, shirts, etc.; yet he had made up his mind (as he wrote to the Geographical Society afterward) to part with his blanket and coat to get a passage, when a young Portuguese sergeant, Cypriano de Abrao, made his appearance, and the party were allowed to pass.
There were many proofs that, though a poor set of fellows, Livingstone's own followers were animated with extraordinary regard for him. No wonder! They had seen how 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 generosity and kindness. When the ox flung him into the river, about twenty of them made a simultaneous rush for his rescue, and their joy at his safety was very great.
Amid all that was discouraging in the present aspect of things, Livingstone could always look forward and rejoice in the good time coming:
"_Sunday 22d_.--This age presents one great fact in the
Providence of God; missions are sent forth to all quarters of
the world,--missions not of one section of the Church, but of
all sections, and from nearly all Christian nations. It seems
very unfair to judge of the success of these by the number of
conversions which have followed. These are rather proofs of
the missions being of the right sort. They show the direction
of the stream which is set in motion by Him who rules the
nations, and Is destined to overflow the world. The fact
which ought to stimulate us above all others is, not that we
have contributed to the conversion of a few souls, however
valuable these may be, but that we are diffusing a knowledge
of Christianity throughout the world. The number of
conversions in India is but a poor criterion of the success
which has followed the missionaries there. The general
knowledge is the criterion; and there, as well as in other
lands where missionaries in the midst of masses of heathenism
seem like voices crying in the 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
that will not serve Thee shall utterly be destroyed'--this
has often been preceded by free offers of friendship and
mercy, and many missions which He has sent in the olden time
seemed bad failures. Noah's preaching was a failure, Isaiah
thought his so too. Poor Jeremiah is sitting weeping tears
over his people, everybody cursing the honest man, and he
ill-pleased with his mother for having borne him among such a
set. And Ezekiel's stiff-necked, rebellious crew were no
better. Paul said, 'All seek their own, not the things of
Jesus Christ,' and he knew that after his departure grievous
wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock. Yet the cause
of God is still carried on to more enlightened developments
of his will and character, and the dominion is being given by
the power of commerce and population unto the people of the
saints of the Most High. And this is an everlasting kingdom,
a little stone cut out of a mountain without hands which
shall cover the whole earth. For this time we work; may God
accept our imperfect service!"
At length Livingstone began to get near the coast, reaching the outlying Portuguese stations. He was received by the Portuguese gentlemen with great kindness, and his wants were generously provided for. One of them gave him the first glass 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, who did not like the slave-trade--not they, but had most enlightened views for the welfare of Africa. But opposite some of these eulogistical passages of the Journal there were afterward added an expressive series of marks of interrogation.
At a later date he saw reason to doubt the sincerity of some of the professions of these gentlemen. Ingenuous and trustful, he could at first think nothing but good of those who had shown 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 Livingstone never ceased to be grateful for a single kind act. It is important to note that whatever he came to think of their policy afterward, he was always ready to make this acknowledgment.
Arrived at Loanda, 31st May, 1854, with his twenty-seven followers, he was most kindly received by Mr. Edmund Gabriel, the British Commissioner for the suppression of the slave-trade there, and everything was done by him for his comfort. The sensation of lying on an English bed, after six months lying on the ground, was indescribably delightful. Mr. Gabriel was equally attentive to him during a long and distressing attack of fever and dysentery that 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, however, was a great solace. He gave him much information, not only on all that concerned the slave-trade--now more than ever attracting his attention--but also on the natural history of the district, and he entered _con amore_ into the highest objects of his mission. Afterward, in acknowledging to the Directors of the London Missionary Society receipt of a letter for Dr. Livingstone, intrusted to his care, Mr. Gabriel wrote as follows (20th March, 1856):
"Dr. Livingstone, after the noble objects he has achieved,
most assuredly wants no testimony from me. I consult,
therefore, the impulse of my own mind alone, when I declare
that in no respect was my intercourse more gratifying to me
than in the opportunities afforded to me of observing his
_earnest, active, and unwearied solicitude for the
advancement of Christianity._ Few, perhaps, have had better
opportunities than myself of estimating _the benefit 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 the true geography
of the interior, the Directors, I am sure, will not have
failed to perceive how interesting and valuable are all the
communications they receive from him--as sketches of the
social condition of the people, and the material, fabrics,
and produce Of these lands. I most fervently pray that the
kind Providence, which has hitherto carried him through so
many perils and hardships, may guide him safely to his
present journey's end."
The friendship of Mr. Gabriel was honorable both to himself and to Dr. Livingstone. At a very early period he learned to appreciate Livingstone thoroughly, he saw how great as well as how good a man he was, and felt that to be the friend of such a man was one of the highest distinctions he could have. After Livingstone left Loanda, and while he was detained within reach of letters, a brisk correspondence passed between them; Mr. Gabriel tells him about birds, helps him in 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 excellent man's health has suffered a good deal [on the return journey]. He nevertheless wrote in cheerful spirits, sanguine of success in doing his duty under the guidance and protection of that kind Providence who had always carried him through so many perils and hardships. He assures me that since he knew the value of Christianity, he has ever wished to spend his life in propagating its blessings among men, and adds that the same desire remains still as strong as ever."
While Livingstone was at Loanda, he made several acquaintances among the officers of Her Majesty's navy, engaged in the suppression of the slave-trade. For many of these gentlemen he was led to entertain a high regard. Their humanity charmed him, and so did their attention to their duties. In his 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 intensely sympathetic nature drew powerfully to all who were interested in what was rapidly becoming his own master-idea--the suppression of the slave-trade. We shall see proofs not a few, how this sympathetic affection modified some of his early opinions, and greatly widened the sphere of his charity.
After all the illness and dangers he had encountered, Livingstone might quite honorably have accepted a berth in one of Her Majesty's cruisers, and returned to England. But the men who had come with him from the Barotse country to Loanda had to return, and Livingstone knew that they were quite unable to perform the journey without him. That consideration determined his course. All the risks and dangers of that terrible road--the attacks of fever and dysentery, 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 unexceptional highway to the sea for the purpose of general traffic. The east coast seemed to promise better than the west. That great river, the Zambesi, might be found to be a navigable highway to the sea. He would return to Linyanti, and set out from it to find a way to the eastern shore. Loaded with kindness from many quarters, and furnished with presents for Sekelétu, and for the chiefs along the way, Livingstone bade farewell to Loanda on 20th September, 1854.
The following letter to Mrs. Livingstone, written a month afterward, gives his impressions of Loanda and the neighborhood;
"_Golungo Alto, 25th October_, 1854.--It occurs to me, my
dearest Mary, that if I send you a note from different parts
on the way through this colony, some of them will surely
reach you; and If they carry any of the affection I bear to
you in their composition, they will not 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 dysentery which reduced me very much; and I
remained a short time longer than that actually required to
set me on my legs, in longing expectation of a letter from
you. None came, but should any come up to the beginning of
November, it will come after me by post to Cassangé.
"The [Roman Catholic] Bishop, who was then acting-governor,
gave a horse, saddle, and bridle, a colonel's suit of
clothes, etc., for Sekelétu, and a dress of blue and red
cloth, with a white cotton blanket and cap to each of my
companions, who are the best set of men I ever traveled with
except Malatzi and Mebalwe. The merchants of Loanda gave
Sekelétu a large present of cloth, beads, etc., and one of
them, a Dutch-man, 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 writes me in the moat affectionate
manner. I thank God for his goodness in influencing the
hearts of so many to show kindness, to whom I was a total
stranger. The Portuguese have all been extremely kind. In
coming through the coffee plantations I was offered more
coffee than I could take or needed, and the best in the
world. One spoonful makes it stronger than three did of that
we used. It is found wild on the mountains.
"Mr. Gabriel came about 30 miles with me, and ever since,
though I spoke freely about the slave-trade, the very
gentlemen who have been engaged in it, and have been
prevented by our ships from following it, and often lost
much, treated me most kindly in their houses, and often
accompanied me to the next place beyond them, bringing food
for all in the way. The common people are extremely civil,
and a very large proportion of the inhabitants 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 field also.... Give my love to all the
children, they will reap the advantage of your remaining
longer at home than we anticipated. I hope Robert, Agnes, and
Tom are each learning as fast as they can. When will they be
able to write a letter to me? How happy I shall be to meet
them and you again! I hope a letter from you may be waiting
for me at Zambesi. Love to all the children. How tall is
Zouga? Accept the assurance of unabated love.
"DAVID LIVINGSTON."
It must not be forgotten that all this time Dr. Livingstone was making very careful astronomical observations, in order to determine his exact positions, and transmitting elaborate letters to the Geographical Society. His astronomical observations were regularly forwarded to his friend the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape, Mr. Maclear, for verification and correction.
Writing to Livingstone on 27th March, 1854, with reference to some of his earlier observations, after noticing a few trifling mistakes, Mr. Maclear says: "It is both interesting and amusing to trace your improvement as an observer. Some of your early observations, as you remark, are rough, and the angles ascribed to objects misplaced in transcribing. 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 them, sending them to the authorities, and publishing them in the Cape papers. He informs him that Sir John Herschel placed them before the Geographical Society, and that a warm eulogium on his labors and discoveries, and particularly on the excellent series of observations which fixed his track so exactly, appeared in the President's Address.
Then, referring to his wonderful journey to Loanda, and remarkable escapes, he says: "Nor is your escape with life from so many attacks of fever other than 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 continued to you, my dear friend! You have accomplished more for the happiness of mankind than has been done by all the African travelers hitherto put together."
Mr. Maclear's reference to Livingstone's work, in writing to Sir John Herschel, was in these terms: "Such a man deserves every encouragement in the power of his country to give. He has done that which few other travelers in Africa can boast of--he has fixed his geographical points with very great accuracy, and yet he is only a poor missionary."
Nor did Dr. Livingstone pass unrewarded in other quarters. In the Geographical Society, his journey to Loanda, of which he sent them an account, excited the liveliest interest. In May, 1855, on the motion of Sir Roderick Murchison, the Society testified 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 ends which he had ever prosecuted in the true spirit of a missionary. The simplicity of his arrangements gave additional wonder to the results. There had just appeared an account of a Portuguese expedition of African exploration from the East Coast:
"I advert to it," said his Lordship, "to point out the
contrast between the two. Colonel Monteiro was the leader of
a small army--some twenty Portuguese soldiers, and a hundred
and twenty Caffres. The contrast 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 Portuguese
of some three hundred leagues of new country, and the
scientific precision with which the unarmed and unassisted
Englishman has left his mark on so many important stations of
regions hitherto a blank."
About the time when these words were spoken, Dr. Livingstone was at Cabango on his return journey, recovering from a very severe attack of rheumatic fever which had left him nearly deaf; besides, he was almost 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 Roderick Murchison, of which more anon, reporting progress, and explaining his views of the structure of Africa. But we must return to Loanda, and set out with him and his Makololo in proper on their homeward tour.