The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

1160 f it era I u rt. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. By David Livingstone, LL.D., D.C.L. London: Murray. Da. LIVINGSTONE deserves credit for having not only written the best modern book upon Africa, but for having, after a sixteen years residence in the country, com»ressed his information into a single volume. This art of condensa tion is a great gift in a traveller. Then he is full without being tedious, observant without being trifling, and impressive without being pretentious. There is not a line of " fine writing' in the whole book; he never seeks to create an effect, but places before you so sensibly and so feelingly the story of his adventurous life, that your interest, in his career is well sustained, and you close the book impressed with his rigid truthful ness and earnest piety. There never was a man morally or physically better fitted by nature for the great task he imposed upon him self than Dr. Livingstone. Of a sanguine and courageous disposition, eager in the acquisi tion of knowledge, loving truth, enthusiastic in his admiration of nature, pious and sensi ble, possessing broad views and keen percep tions, and with a physique capable of great en durance, a better lima than he could not have been selected for an African mission. In a word, he is one of " Plutarch's men," and these aro they who influence nations, and stamp their mark upon the history of the world. In 1840 Dr. Livingstone embarked for Africa under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. Originally, be tells us in a brief sketch of his early life, he had been brought up as a " piecer " in a cotton factory at Glasgow, but his love of knowledge and of religion de termined him to devote himself to the life of a missionary. He saved his wages as a boy, bought books which he read while at work, and at the age of nineteen had saved so much that he was enabled to give up cotton spin ning and devote himself to the study of medi cine and divinity, with the view of going to China as a missionary, but the opium war then raging induced him to turn his thoughts to Africa, and iu 1840 he embarked for Cape Town en route to Lattakoo, then, as now, the farthest head missionary station of the London society. His instructions were "to turn his " attention to the north," and the first thing he did was characteristic of the man. He "cut himself off," to use his own words, from European society for six months, retiring six teen miles away from the head station to a native village, where he imposed upon himself a careful study of the habits, laws, and lan guage of the Bakwains, a tribe of Bechuanas, in order to qualify himself thoroughly for intercourse with the natives. Finally, in 1843, he settled at Kolobeng, in the beautiful valley of Mabotsa (lat. 25' 14', lon. 28" 30'), and here he remained in the heart of the Bakwain country for some six years in the exercise of his missionary duties. The Bak wains were a friendly, inoffensive race, afford. ing excellent material for the missionary, but they were harassed and hunted down by a colony of lawless refugee Boers, who had emigrated beyond the boundaries of the Cape colony, and had established their republic upon the frontier of the Bechuana territory. Dr. Livingstone speaks in severe tones of the cruelty and tyranny of these ruffians, who make razzias upon the native villsges, carry off prisoners into slavery, and bring disgrace upon the European name. While here Dr. Livingstone, from his observations on the ad vantages of commerce as an aid to the spread of Christianity, conceived the idea of pushing farther into the interior, in order to open up the country, not only to spiritual, but to more material benefits. The accounts he received from the Bakwains of the disposition of Sebituane, a great African conqueror, and chief of the Makololo, con firmed him in his views. He made frequent expeditions to the cast and to the north, and he partly achieved his object by reaching the banks of Lake His party were the first Enr nns who had ever visited this lake. THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 28, 1857. They started from Kolobeng on the Ist of June, 1849, had crossed the Kalahari Desert in safety, and, coming upon the Zouga river, ascended it for some 150 miles, passed through a country " full of rivers and large trees," till they reached the north-east end of the Lake Ngami, a magnificent sheet of water, some seventy miles in circumference. Dr. Livingstone pronounces the lake too shallow, and of little value as a commercial highway. Here the jealousy of the petty chiefs in the neighbourhood prevented his following up so favourable a beginning, and he was compelled to return to Kolobeng, where he remained till April, 1830, when he made a second attempt to reach Sebituane, and again failed, but only to make a third attempt, in order to succeed. Unfortunately for him, Sebituane, the great chief, died shortly after ' wards, and Dr. Livingstone, passing some time with the tribe, returned, in April, 1852, to Capo Town. Here be despatched his wife and family to England, and, pro viding himself with an ample outfit, started alone on his great journey to the north. Twelve years' residence among, and inter course with, the natives had fitted him for the experiment. He had gone through all the preliminary work, without which success must have been impossible. He had schooled him self into endurance ; he was acclimatised ; he had learned to turn his faculties to every use, and, besides preaching and doctoring, could make bricks and build a house, ride an ox, and shoot a lion, fell trees, weld iron, churn butter, make bread and candles, box the compass, calculate elevations and longitude, and, in point of fact, was a living refutation of the division of labour theory. It was as much to these physical qualities as to his mental superiority that Dr. Living stone won his ascendancy over the na tives. "He is not strong, he is quite slim, " and only appears stout because he puts him " self into those bags (trousers) ; he will soon " knock up," were the remarks he overheard some of the natives make, as to his powers in a long journey on foot. He kept them all at their top speed for days together, and they respected him ever afterwards. He started from the Cape towards the close of '52, and, reaching Kuruman, learned that the refugee Boers had attacked the Bakwains at Kolobeng, destroyed his house, scattered his papers, and plundered all his property, out of revenge for his efforts to open up the country to commerce and to spread Christianity among the people. Without waiting to expos tulate against this cruel injury, Dr. Livingstone pushed on by his previous route for the country of the Makololo, and reached the capital, Lin yanti, about 1,200 miles above the Cape, in thy; spring of 1853. Here he remained for several months making preparations for his great effort to penetrate to the north and west. Sekeletu, the chief of the Makololo, who had succeeded Sebituane, received him with great kindness, nursed him through an attack of fever, and provided him guides when he was prepared to start. On the 11th November, 1853, Dr. Livingstone started with as few " impedi ments " as possible, and twenty-seven men, who were appointed by Sekeletu to accompany him in spite of the warnings of a noted croaker, an old diviner, who cried out at the assembly held to consider the question— " Where is ho taking you to ? The white man "is throwing you away. Your garments " already smell of blood." Sokeletu only laughed at him, and Livingstone and his party started with the good wishes of Sekeletu and his people, ascenaing the waters of the Leeambye, or Zatnbesi, until he reached the confluence of the Leeba, and passed on up this river for a short distance, when, leavinghis canoes, he commenced a jour ney by land and to the westward ; and after passing through a series of adventures, which are most attractive in their telling, he arrived safely, on the 3lat May, 1854, at the Portuguese settlement of Loanda, on the western coast. Upon the 20th September of the same year the indefatigable traveller, whom no difficulties could overcome, started on his return to Linyanti. He spent some months in the Portuguese settlement of Angola, with the view of acquainting himself fully with its capabilities, and finally left in January, 1855, for Linyanti. Making detours to the north and south in order to visit towns or places of interest, he reached Sekeletu at Linyanti in August of the same year. Having thus proved to the Makololo the existence of a route to the sea by the west, but seeing the impracticability of using that route as a carriage-path, ho resolved upon attempting an eastern route by way of the Zambesi : Having found it impracticable to open up a carriage path to the west, it became a question as to which part of the east coast we should direct our steps. The Arabs had come from Zanzibar through a peaceful country. They assured me that the powerful chiefs beyond the Cazembe on the N.E., viz. Moatutu, Moaroro, and Mogogo, chiefs of the tribes Batutu, Baroro, and Bagogo, w.,uld have no objection to my passing through their country. They described the population there as located in small villages like the BaLonde, and that no difficulty is experienced in travelling amongst them. They men tioned also that, at a distance of ten days beyond Cazembe, their path winds round the end of Lake Tanganyenka. But when they reach this lake a little to the north-west of its southern extremity, they find no difficulty in obtaining canoes to carry them over. They sleep on islands, for it is said to require three days in crossing, and may thus be forty or fifty miles broad. Here they punt the canoes the whole way, showing that it is shallow. There are many small streams in the path, and three large rivers. This then appeared to me to be the safest; but my present object being a path admitting of water rather than land carriage, this route did not promise so much as that by wit of the Zambesi or Leeambye. The Makololo knew all the country eastwards as far as the Kafue, from having lived in former times near the confluence of that river with the Zambesi, and they all advised this path in preference to that by the way of Zanzibar. The only difficulty that they assured me of was that in the falls of Victoria. Some recommended my going to Sesheke, and crossing over in a N.E. direction to the Kafue, which is only six days distant, and descending that river to the Zambesi. Others recommended me to go on the south bank of the Zambesi until I bad passed the falls, then get canoes and proceed further down the river. All spoke strongly of the difficulties of travelling on the north bank, on account of the excessively broken and rocky nature of the country near the river on that side. And when Ponuane, who had lately headed a foray there, proposed that I should carry canoes along that side, till we reached the spot where the Leeambye becomes broad and placid again, others declared that, from the difficulties he him self had experienced in forcing the men of his expedition to do this, they believed that mine would be sure to desert me, if I attempted to impose such a task upon them. Another objection to travelling on either bank of the river, was the prevalence of the tsetse, which is so abundant, that the inhabitants can keep no domestic animals except goats. While pondering over these different paths, I could not help regretting my being alone. If I had enjoyed the company of my former companion, Mr. Oswell, one of us might have taken the Zambesi, and the other gone by way of Zanzibar. The latter route was decidedly the easiest, because all the inland tribes were friendly, while the tribes in the direction of the Zambesi were inimical, and I should now be obliged to lead a party, which the Batoka of that country view as hostile invaders, through an enemy's land; but as the prospect of permanent water conveyance was good, I decided on going down the Zambesi. On the 3rd of Nov., 1535, Dr. Livingstone started on his homeward voyage. How he suc ceeded, and what adventures he met with, his narrative must tell. Suffice it for the present to say, that by alternately descending the rivers, cutting across the land at extensive bends, and rejoining the river again, he reached its mouth at Quilimane in safety in the month of May, '56. To Dr. Livingstone's subsequent arrival and reception in England we need not allude; we need only say that he is most anxious to return to the field of his labours, and who so fit AS he ? It is necessary to give this brief introductory summary of the extent and direction of Dr. Livingstone's travels be fore we can venture to define results or draw conclusions from his labours. After dwelling upon the geological features of Southern Africa, Dr. Livingstone arrives at a similar conclusion to that pronounced, un known to him at the time, by Sir Roderick Murchison in 185:2, viz., that the interior of Central Africa for ages has been a vast lacus trine country, and that the basin-shaped struc ture of Central Southern Africa extends from Lake Ngami to Lake Tchad. Dr. Livingstone first heard of this prediction in the autumn of 1855. "There was not much use," he writes, "in nursing my chagrin at being thus " fairly cut out' by the man who had foretold " the existence of the Australian gold before " its discovery, for here it was, in black and " white. In his easy-chair he had forestalled " me by three years, though I had been work - ing hard through jungle, marsh, and fever, " and, since the light dawned on Loy mind at