Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/351

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DR. LIVINGSTONE.
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recommended, in subsequent letters home, as a field for missionary enterprise. In the same letters he referred to the organization of a mission, which, he suggested, should consist of a missionary bishop as leader, a staff of clergymen, and a small band of laborers and skilled artisans to instruct the natives in industrial work. This advice was acted upon. The then Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Wilberforce—suitably to the prestige of that honored name—took an active part in establishing what was afterward known as the "Universities' Mission to Central Africa." The Rev. C. F. Mackenzie, Archdeacon of Pieter-Maritzburg, in Natal, was chosen as bishop; and, £17,000 having been subscribed, of which a large portion was contributed by the manufacturing towns, the mission left England on October 6, 1860. After Bishop Mackenzie's consecration at Capetown, on January 1, 1861, he set sail with his companions for the Kongone mouth of the Zambési, in two parties, on board H. M. ships Sidon and Lyra. The Ma-Robert had proved too weak for her work, and, besides carrying the missionaries, the Sidon had the task of taking out the Pioneer in convoy, a new and larger steamer granted to Livingstone by Government. Arriving off the Kongone early in February, they found the doctor with his party waiting for them, having just returned from the Makololo Country, where he had gone to take home the men he had been obliged to leave at Tette, in 1856.

Dr. Livingstone threw himself into the plans of the missionaries, and, without absolutely identifying himself with their work, gave it his hearty support and coöperation. The Pioneer was offered for their passage up the rivers Zambési and Shiré; and the proposal that he should himself accompany them to the place where they were to settle, near Lake Shirwah, was accepted with even greater satisfaction. This good office accomplished, he proceeded with his own work of exploring the southern end of Lake Nyassa (lat. 14° 25' S., long. 35° 30' E.), discovered, like Lake Shirwah, a few miles S.S.E. of it, in 1859.

Parenthetically: a figure of medium height, the tough, wiry frame denoting great powers of endurance, the left arm slightly shortened, recalling the perilous encounter with the lion; firm-set features, weather-beaten and browned, though not roughened, by exposure, passive and thoughtful rather than demonstrative; the eyes' keen glance, and a rapidly-changing expression, betraying furtive enthusiasm; a low voice, winning address, manners quiet, frank, and unaffected, even reserved; such was David Livingstone as he is remembered in his favorite dress of rough blue naval cloth, the jacket short, and the low cap, of the same material, surrounded by a broad silver band. Nor is it easy to forget the kindliness of disposition, and the readiness to give sympathy wherever there was zeal, though hesitation or a self-sparing timidity was derided as much as it was despised. Full of courage and self-reliant, he expects to find something of a like spirit in others; and he gives them credit for it, never assuming backwardness or incapacity,