# The Personal Life of David Livingstone/CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XI.
FIRST VISIT HOME--_continued_.
A.D. 1857-1858.
Livingstone at Dublin, at British Association--Letter to his wife--He meets the Chamber of Commerce at Manchester--At Glasgow, receives honors from Corporation, University, Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, United Presbyterians, Cotton-spinners--His speeches in reply--His brother Charles joins him--Interesting meeting and speech at Hamilton--Reception from "Literary and Scientific Institute of Blantyre"--Sympathy with operatives--Quick apprehension of all public questions--His social views in advance of the age--He plans a People's Café--Visit to Edinburgh--More honors--Letter to Mr. Maclear--Interesting visit to Cambridge--Lectures there--Professor Sedgwick's remarks on his visit--Livingstone's great satisfaction--Relations to London Missionary Society--He severs his connection--Proposal of Government expedition--He accepts consulship and command of expedition--Kindness of Lords Palmerston and Clarendon--The Portuguese Ambassador--Livingstone proposes to go to Portugal--Is dissuaded--Lord Clarendon's letter to Sekelétu--Results of Livingstone's visit to England--Farewell banquet, Feb., 1858--Interview with the Queen--Valedictory letters--Professor Sedgwick and Sir Roderick Murchison--Arrangements for expedition--Dr., Mrs., and Oswell Livingstone set sail from Liverpool--Letters to children.
Finding himself, in the autumn, free of the toil of book-making, Dr. Livingstone moved more freely through the country, attended meetings, and gave addresses. In August he went to Dublin, to the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and gave an interesting lecture. Mrs. Livingstone did not accompany him. In a letter to her we have some pleasant notes of his Dublin visit:
[Footnote 52: Dr. Livingstone always liked that style of earnest Christianity which he notices in this letter. In November of the same year, after he had resigned his connection with the London Missionary Society, and was preparing to return to Africa as H.M. Consul and head of the Zambesi Expedition, he writes thus to his friend Mr. James Young: "I read the life of Hedley Vicars for the first time through, when down at Rugby. It is really excellent, and makes me ashamed of the coldness of my services in comparison. That was his sister you saw me walking with in Dublin at the Gardens (Lady Rayleigh). If you have not read it, the sooner you dip into it the better. You will thank me for it."]
In September we find him in Manchester, where the Chamber of Commerce gave him a hearty welcome, and entered cordially into his schemes for the commercial development of Africa. He was subjected to a close cross-examination regarding the products of the country, and the materials it contained for commerce; but here, too, the missionary was equal to the occasion. He had brought home five or six and twenty different kinds of fruit; he told them of oils they had never heard of--dyes that were kept secret by the natives--fibres that might be used for the manufacture of paper--sheep that had hair instead of wool--honey, sugar-cane, wheat, millet, cotton, and iron, all abounding in the country. That all these should abound in what used to be deemed a sandy desert appeared very strange. A very cordial resolution was unanimously agreed to, and a strong desire expressed that Her Majesty's Government would unite with that of Portugal in giving Dr. Livingstone facilities for further exploration in the interior of Africa, and especially in the district around the river Zambesi and its tributaries, which promised to be the most suitable as a basis both for commercial and missionary settlements.
In the course of the same month his foot was again on his native soil, and there his reception was remarkably cordial. In Glasgow, the University, the Corporation, the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, the United Presbyterians, and the Associated Operative Cotton-spinners of Scotland came forward to pay him honor. A testimonial of £2000 had been raised by public subscription. The Corporation presented him with the freedom of the city in a gold box, in acknowledging which he naturally dwelt on some of the topics that were interesting to a commercial community. He gave a somewhat new view of "Protection" when he called it a remnant of heathenism. The heathen would be dependent on no one; they would depress all other communities. Christianity taught us to be friends and brothers, and he was glad that all restrictions on the freedom of trade were now done away with. He dwelt largely on the capacity of Africa to furnish us with useful articles of trade, and especially cotton.
His reception by the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons had a special interest in relation to his medical labors. For nearly twenty years he had been a licentiate of this Faculty, one of the oldest medical institutions of the country, which for two centuries and a half had exerted a great influence in the west of Scotland. He was now admitted an honorary Fellow--an honor rarely conferred, and only on pre-eminently distinguished men. The President referred to the benefit which he had found from his scientific as well as his more strictly medical studies, pursued under their auspices, and Livingstone cordially echoed the remark, saying he often hoped that his sons might follow the same course of study and devote themselves to the same noble profession:
To the United Presbyterians of Glasgow he spoke of mission work in Africa. At one time he had been somewhat disappointed with the Bechuana Christians, and thought the results of the mission had been exaggerated, but when he went into the interior and saw heathenism in all its unmitigated ferocity, he changed his opinion, and had a higher opinion than ever of what the mission had done. Such gatherings as the present were very encouraging; but in Africa mission work was hard work without excitement; and they had just to resolve to do their duty without expecting to receive gratitude from those whom they labored to serve. When gratitude came, they were thankful to have it; but when it did not come they must go on doing their duty, as unto the Lord.
His reply to the cotton-spinners is interesting as showing how fresh his sympathy still was with the sons of toil, and what respect he had for their position. He congratulated himself on the Spartan training he had got at the Blantyre mill, which had really been the foundation of all the work he had done. Poverty and hard work were often looked down on,--he did not know why,--for wickedness was the only thing that ought to be a reproach to any man. Those that looked down on cotton-spinners with contempt were men who, had they been cotton-spinners at the beginning, would have been cotton-spinners to the end. The life of toil was what belonged to the great majority of the race, and to be poor was no reproach. The Saviour occupied the humble position that they had been born in, and he looked back on his own past life as having been spent in the same position in which the Saviour lived.
At Hamilton an interesting meeting took place in the Congregational Chapel where he had been a worshiper in his youth. Here he was emphatically at home; and he took the opportunity (as he often did) to say how little he liked the lionizing he was undergoing, and how unexpected all the honors were that had been showered upon him. He had hoped to spend a short and quiet visit, and then return to his African work. It was his sense of the kindness shown him, and the desire not to be disobliging, that made him accept the public invitations he was receiving. But he did not wish to take the honor to himself, as if he had achieved anything by his own might or wisdom. He thanked God sincerely for employing him as an instrument in his work. One of the greatest honors was to be employed in winning souls to Christ, and proclaiming to the captives of Satan the liberty with which he had come to make them free. He was thankful that to him, "the least of all saints," this honor had been given. He then proceeded to notice the presence of members of various Churches, and to advert to the broadening process that had been going on in his own mind while in Africa, which made him feel himself more than ever the brother of all:
[Footnote 53: Dr. Livingstone gave practical evidence of his sincerity in these remarks in the case of his elder daughter, saying, in reply to one of her guardians with whom she was residing, that he had no objections to her joining the Church of Scotland. This, however, she did not do; but afterward, when at Newstead Abbey, she was confirmed by the Bishop of Lincoln, and received the Communion along with her father, who helped to prepare her.]
[Footnote 54: Dr. Livingstone had been joined by his brother Charles, who was present on this occasion.]
At Blantyre, his native village, the Literary and Scientific Institute gave him a reception, Mr. Hannan, one of the proprietors of the works, a magistrate of Glasgow, and an old acquaintance of Livingstone's, being in the chair. The Doctor was laboring under a cold, the first he had had for sixteen years. He talked to them of his travels, and by particular request gave an account of his encounter with the Mabotsa lion. He ridiculed Mrs. Beecher Stowe's notion that factory-workers were slaves. He counseled them strongly to put more confidence than workmen generally did in the honest good intentions of their employers, reminding them that some time ago, when the Blantyre proprietors had wished to let every workman have a garden, it was said by some that they only wished to bring the ground into good order, and then they would take the garden away. That was nasty and suspicious. If masters were more trusted, they would do more good. Finally, he exhorted them cordially to accept God's offers of mercy to them in Christ, and give themselves wholly to Him. To bow down before God was not mean; it was manly. His one wish for them all was that they might have peace with God, and rejoice in the hope of the eternal inheritance.
His remarks to the operatives show how sound and sagacious his views were on social problems; in this sphere, indeed, he was in advance of the age. The quickness and correctness with which he took up matters of public interest in Britain, mastered facts, and came to clear, intelligent conclusions on them, was often the astonishment of his friends. It was as if, instead of being buried in Africa, he had been attending the club and reading the daily newspapers for years,--this, too, while he was at work writing his book, and delivering speeches almost without end. We find him at this time anticipating the temperance coffee-house movement, now so popular and successful. On 11th July, 1857, he wrote on this subject to a friend, in reference to a proposal to deliver a lecture in Glasgow. It should be noticed that he never lectured for money, though he might have done so with great pecuniary benefit:
Edinburgh conferred on Livingstone the freedom of the city, besides entertaining him at a public breakfast and hearing him at another meeting. We are not surprised to find him writing to Sir Roderick Murchison from Rossie Priory, on the 27th September, that he was about to proceed to Leeds, Liverpool, and Birmingham, "and then farewell to public spouting for ever. I am dead tired of it. The third meeting at Edinburgh quite knocked me up." It was generally believed that his appearances at Edinburgh were not equal to some others; and probably there was truth in the impression, for he must have come to it exhausted; and besides, at a public breakfast, he was put out by a proposal of the chairman, that they should try to get him a pension. Yet some who heard him in Edinburgh received impressions that were never effaced, and it is probable that seed was silently sown which led afterward to the Scotch Livingstonia Mission--one of the most hopeful schemes for carrying out Livingstone's plans that have yet been organized.
Among the other honors conferred on him during this visit to Britain was the degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. Some time before, Glasgow had given him the honorary degree of LL.D. In the beginning of 1858, when he was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the certificate on his behalf was signed, among others, by the Earl of Carlisle, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, who after his signature added P.R. (_pro Regina_), a thing that had never been done before[55].
[Footnote 55: For list of Dr. Livingstone's honors, see Appendix No. V.]
The life he was now leading was rather trying. He writes to his friend Mr. Maclear on the 10th November:
Livingstone was not yet done with "public spouting," even after his trip to Oxford. Among the visits paid by him toward the end of 1857, none was more interesting or led to more important results than that to Cambridge. It was on 3d December he arrived there, becoming the guest of the Rev. Wm. Monk, of St. John's. Next morning, in the senate-house, he addressed a very large audience, consisting of graduates and undergraduates and many visitors from the town and neighborhood. The Vice-Chancellor presided and introduced the stranger. Dr. Livingstone's lecture consisted of facts relating to the country and its people, their habits and religious belief, with some notices of his travels, and an emphatic statement of his great object--to promote commerce and Christianity in the country which he had opened. The last part of his lecture was an earnest appeal for missionaries.
In a prefatory letter prefixed to the volume entitled _Dr. Livingstone's Cambridge Lectures_, the late Professor Sedgwick remarked, in connection with this event, that in the course of a long academic life he had often been present in the senate-house on exciting occasions; in the days of Napoleon he had heard the greetings given to our great military heroes; he had been present at four installation services, the last of which was graced by the presence of the Queen, when her youthful husband was installed as Chancellor, amid the most fervent gratulations that subjects are permitted to exhibit in the presence of their Sovereign. But on none of these occasions "were the gratulations of the University more honest and true-hearted than those which were offered to Dr. Livingstone. He came among us without any long notes of preparation, without any pageant or eloquence to charm and captivate our senses. He stood before us, a plain, single-minded man, somewhat attenuated by years of toil, and with a face tinged by the sun of Africa.... While we listened to the tale he had to tell, there arose in the hearts of all the listeners a fervent hope that the hand of God which had so long upheld him would uphold him still, and help him to carry out the great work of Christian love that was still before him."
Next day, December 5th, Dr. Livingstone addressed a very crowded audience in the Town Hall, the Mayor presiding. Referring to his own plans, he said:
Dr. Livingstone was thoroughly delighted with his reception at Cambridge. Writing to a friend, on 6th December 1857, he says: "Cambridge, as Playfair would say, was grand. It beat Oxford hollow. To make up my library again they subscribed at least forty volumes at once. I shall have reason soon to bless the Boers."
Referring to his Cambridge visit a few weeks afterward, in a letter to Rev. W. Monk, Dr. Livingstone said: "I look back to my visit to Cambridge as one of the most pleasant episodes of my life. I shall always revert with feelings of delight to the short intercourse I enjoyed with such noble Christian men as Sedgwick, Whewell, Selwyn, etc. etc., as not the least important privilege conferred on me by my visit to England. It is something inspiriting to remember that the eyes of such men are upon one's course. May blessings rest upon them all, and on the seat of learning which they adorn!"
Among the subjects that had occupied Dr. Livingstone's attention most intensely during the early part of the year 1857 was that of his relation to the London Missionary Society. The impression caused by Dr. Tidman's letter received at Quilimane had been quite removed by personal intercourse with the Directors, who would have been delighted to let Livingstone work in their service in his own way. But with the very peculiar work of exploration and inquiry which he felt that his Master had now placed in his hands, Dr. Livingstone was afraid that his freedom would be restricted by his continuing in the service of the Society, while the Society itself would be liable to suffer from the handle that might be given to contributors to say that it was departing from the proper objects of a missionary body. That in resigning his official connection he acted with a full knowledge of the effect which this might have upon his own character, and his reputation before the Church and the world, is evident from his correspondence with one of his most intimate friends and trusted counselors, Mr. J.B. Braithwaite, of Lincoln's Inn. Though himself a member of the Society of Friends, Mr. Braithwaite was desirous that Dr. Livingstone should continue to appear before the public as a Christian minister:
On Dr. Livingstone explaining that, while he fully appreciated these views, it did not appear to him consistent with duty to be receiving the pay of a working missionary while engaged to a considerable extent in scientific exploration, Mr. Braithwaite expressed anew his sympathy for his feelings, and respect for his decision, but not as one quite convinced:
The result showed that Mr. Braithwaite was right as to the impression likely to be made on the public; but the contents of this volume amply prove that the impression was wrong.
Dr. Livingstone had said at Quilimane that if it were the will of God that he should do the work of exploration and settlement of stations which was indispensable to the opening up of Africa, but which the Directors did not then seem to wish him to undertake, the means would be provided from some other quarter. At the meeting of the British Association in Dublin, a movement was begun for getting the Government to aid him. The proposal was entertained favorably by the Government, and practically settled before the end of the year. In February, 1858, Dr. Livingstone received a formal commission, signed by Lord Clarendon, Foreign Secretary, appointing him Her Majesty's Consul at Quilimane for the Eastern Coast and the independent districts in the interior, and commander of an expedition for exploring Eastern and Central Africa. Dr. Livingstone accepted the appointment, and during the last part of his stay in England was much engaged in arranging for the expedition. A paddle steamer of light draught was procured for the navigation of the Zambesi, and the various members of the expedition received their appointments. These were--Commander Bedingfield, R.N., Naval Officer; John Kirk, M.D., Botanist and Physician; Mr. Charles Livingstone, brother of Dr. Livingstone, General Assistant and Secretary; Mr. Richard Thornton, Practical Mining Geologist; Mr. Thomas Baines, Artist and Storekeeper; and Mr. George Rae, Ship Engineer; and whoever afterward might join the expedition were required to obey Dr. Livingstone's directions as leader.
"We managed your affair very nicely," Lord Palmerston said to Livingstone at a reception at Lady Palmerston's on the 12th December. "Had we waited till the usual time when Parliament should be asked, it would have been too late." Lord Shaftesbury, at the reception, assured him that the country would do everything for him, and congratulated him on going out in the way now settled. So did the Lord Chancellor (Cranworth), Sir Culling Eardley, and Mr. Calcraft, M.P.
Dr. Livingstone was on the most friendly terms with the Portuguese Ambassador, the Count de Lavradio, who ever avowed the highest respect for himself, and a strong desire to help him in his work. To get this assurance turned into substantial assistance appeared to Livingstone to be of the very highest importance. Unless strong influence were brought to bear on the local Portuguese Governors in Africa, his scheme would be wrecked. The Portuguese Ambassador was then at Lisbon, and Livingstone had resolved to go there, to secure the influence from headquarters which was so necessary. The Prince Consort had promised to introduce him to his cousin, the King of Portugal. There were, however, some obstacles to his going. Yellow fever was raging at Lisbon, and moreover, time was precious, and a little delay might lead to the loss of a season on the Zambesi. At Lady Palmerston's reception, Lord Palmerston had said to him that Lord Clarendon might manage the Portuguese affair without his going to Lisbon. A day or two after, Livingstone saw Lord Clarendon, who confirmed Lord Palmerston's opinion, and assured him that when Lavradio returned, the affair would be settled. The Lisbon journey was accordingly given up. The Count returned to London before Livingstone left, and expressed a wish to send a number of Portuguese agents along with him. But to this both Lord Clarendon and he had the strongest objections, as complicating the expedition. Livingstone was furnished with letters from the Portuguese Government to the local Governors, instructing them to give him all needful help. But when he returned to the Zambesi he found that these public instructions were strangely neutralized and reversed by some unseen process. He himself believed to the last in the honest purpose of the King of Portugal, but he had not the same confidence in the Government. From some of the notes written to him at this time by friends who understood more of diplomacy than he did, we can see that little actual help was expected from the local Governors in the Portuguese settlements, one of these friends expressing the conviction that "the sooner those Portuguese dogs-in-the-manger are eaten, up, body and bones, by the Zulu Caffres, the better."
The co-operation of Lord Clarendon was very cordial. "He told me to go to Washington (of the Admiralty) as if all had been arranged, and do everything necessary, and come to him for everything I needed. He repeated, 'Just come here and tell me what you want, and I will give it you.' He was wonderfully kind. I thank God who gives the influence." Among other things, Lord Clarendon wrote an official letter to the chief Sekelétu, thanking him, in the name of the Queen, for his kindness and help to her servant, Dr. Livingstone, explaining the desire of the British nation, as a commercial and Christian people, to live at peace with all and to benefit all; telling him, too, what they thought of the slave-trade; hoping that Sekelétu would help to keep "God's highway," the river Zambesi, as a free pathway for all nations; assuring him of friendship and good-will; and respectfully hinting that, "as we have derived all our greatness from the divine religion we received from heaven, it will be well if you consider it carefully when any of our people talk to you about it[56]."
[Footnote 56: See Appendix No. IV.]
Most men, after receiving such _carte blanche_ as Lord Clarendon had given to Livingstone, would have been drawing out plans on a large scale, regardless of expense. Livingstone's ideas were quite in the opposite direction. Instead of having to press Captain Washington, he had to restrain him. The expedition as planned by Washington, with commander and assistant, and a large staff of officers, was too expensive. All that Livingstone wished was a steam launch, with an economic botanist, a practical mining geologist, and an assistant. All was to be plain and practical; nothing was wished for ornament or show.
Before we come to the last adieus, it is well to glance at the remarkable effect of Dr. Livingstone's short visit, in connection with his previous labors, on the public opinion of the country in regard to Africa. In the first place, as we have already remarked, there was quite a revolution of ideas as to the interior of the country. It astonished men to find that, instead of a vast sandy desert, it was so rich and productive a land, and merchants came to see that if only a safe and wholesome traffic could be introduced, the result would be hardly less beneficial to them than to the people of Africa. In the second place, a new idea was given of the African people. Caffre wars and other mismanaged enterprises had brought out the wildest aspects of the native character, and had led to the impression that the blacks were just as brutish and ferocious as the tigers and crocodiles among which they lived. But Livingstone showed, as Moffat had showed before him, that, rightly dealt with, they were teachable and companionable, full of respect for the white man, affectionate toward him when he treated them well, and eager to have him dwelling among them. On the slave-trade of the interior he had thrown a ghastly light, although it was reserved to him in his future journeys to make a full exposure of the devil's work in that infamous traffic. He had thrown light, too, on the structure of Africa, shown where healthy localities were to be found, copiously illustrated its fauna and flora, discovered great rivers and lakes, and laid them down on its map with the greatest accuracy; and he had shown how its most virulent disease might be reduced to the category of an ordinary cold. In conjunction with other great African travelers, he had contributed not a little to the great increase of popularity which had been acquired by the Geographical Society. He had shown abundance of openings for Christian missions from Kuruman to the Zambesi, and from Loanda to Quilimane. He had excited no little compassion for the negro, by vivid pictures of his dark and repulsive life, with so much misery in it and so little joy. In the cause of missions he did not appeal in vain. At the English Universities, young men of ability and promise got new light on the purposes of life, and wondered that they had not thought sooner of offering themselves for such noble work. In Scotland, men like James Stewart, now of Lovedale, were set thinking whether they should not give themselves to Africa, and older men, like Mr. R.A. Macfie and the late Mr. James Cunningham, of Edinburgh, were pondering in what manner the work could be begun. The London Missionary Society, catching up Livingstone's watchword "Onward," were planning a mission at Linyanti, on the banks of the Zambesi. Mr. Moffat was about to pay a visit to the great Mosilikatse, with a view to the commencement of a mission to the Matebele. As for Livingstone himself, his heart was yearning after his friends the Makololo. He had been quite willing to go and be their missionary, but in the meantime other duty called him. Not being aware of any purpose to plant a mission among them, he made an arrangement with his brother-in-law, Mr. John Moffat, to become their missionary. Out of his private resources he promised him £500, for outfit, etc., and £150 a year for five years as salary, besides other sums, amounting in all to £1400. Nearly three years of his own salary as Consul (£500) were thus pledged and paid. In one word, Africa, which had long been a symbol of all that is dry and uninviting, suddenly became the most interesting part of the globe.
As the time of Dr. Livingstone's departure for Africa drew near, a strong desire arose among many of his friends, chiefly the geographers, to take leave of him in a way that should emphatically mark the strength of their admiration and the cordiality of their good wishes. It was accordingly resolved that he should be invited to a public dinner on the 13th February, 1858, and that Sir Roderick Murchison should occupy the chair. On the morning of that day he had the honor of an interview with Her Majesty the Queen. A Scottish correspondent of an American journal, whose letter at other points shows that he had good information[57], after referring to the fact that Livingstone was not presented in the usual way, says:
[Footnote 57: We have ascertained that the correspondent was the late Mr. Keddie, of the Glasgow Free Church College, who got his information from Mr. James Young.]
In the only notice of this interview which we have found in Livingstone's own writing, he simply says that Her Majesty assured him of her good wishes in his journeys. It was the only interview with his Sovereign he ever had. When he returned in 1864 he said that he would have been pleased to have another, but only if it came naturally, and without his seeking it. The Queen manifested the greatest interest in him, and showed great kindness to his family, when the rumor came of his death.
The banquet in Freemason's Tavern, which it had been intended to limit to 250 guests, overflowed the allotted bounds, and was attended by upward of 350, including the Ministers of Sweden and Norway, and of Denmark; Dukes of Argyll and Wellington; Earl of Shaftesbury and Earl Grey; Bishops of Oxford and St. David's; and hosts of other celebrities in almost every department of public life. The feeling was singularly cordial. Sir Roderick rehearsed the services of Livingstone, crowning them, as was his wont, with that memorable act--his keeping his promise to his black servants by returning with them from Loanda to the heart of Africa, in spite of all the perils of the way, and all the attractions of England, thereby "leaving for himself in that country a glorious name, and proving to the people of Africa what an English Christian is." Still more, perhaps, did Sir Roderick touch the heart of the audience when he said of Livingstone "that notwithstanding eighteen months of laudation, so justly bestowed on him by all classes of his countrymen, and after receiving all the honors which the Universities and cities of our country could shower upon him, he is still the same honest, true-hearted David Livingstone as when he issued from the wilds of Africa." It was natural for the Duke of Argyll to recall the fact that Livingstone's family was an Argyllshire one, and it was a happy thought that as Ulva was close to Iona--"that illustrious island," as Dr. Samuel Johnson called it, "whence roving tribes and rude barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion,"--so might the son of Ulva carry the same blessings to Africa, and be remembered, perhaps, by millions of the human race as the first pioneer of civilization, and the first harbinger of the gospel. It was graceful in the Bishop of Oxford (Samuel Wilberforce) to advert to the debt of unparalleled magnitude which England, founder of the accursed slave-trade, owed to Africa, and to urge the immediate prosecution of Livingstone's plans, inasmuch as the spots in Africa, where the so-called Christian trader had come, were marked, more than any other, by crime and distrust, and insecurity of life and property. It was a good opportunity for Professor Owen to tell the story of the spiral tusk, to rehearse some remarkable instances of Livingstone's accurate observations and happy conjectures on the habits of animals, to rate him for destroying the moral character of the lion, and to claim credit for having discovered, in the bone caves of England, the remains of an animal of greater bulk than any living species, that may have possessed all the qualities which the most ardent admirer of the British lion could desire[58]!
[Footnote 58: Livingstone purposed to bequeath to Professor Owen a somewhat extraordinary legacy. Writing afterward to his friend Mr. Young, he said: "If I die at home I would lie beside you. My left arm goes to Professor Owen, mind. That is the will of David Livingstone."]
On no topic was the applause of the company more enthusiastic than when mention was made of Mrs. Livingstone, who was then preparing to accompany her husband on his journey. Livingstone's own words to the company were simple and hearty, but they were the words of truth and soberness. He was overwhelmed with the kindness he had experienced. He did not expect any speedy result from the Expedition, but he was sanguine as to its ultimate benefit. He thought they would get in the thin end of the wedge, and that it would be driven home by English energy and spirit. For himself, with all eyes resting upon him, he felt under an obligation to do better than he had ever done. And as to Mrs. Livingstone:
Of the many letters of adieu he received before setting out we have space for only two. The first came from the venerable Professor Sedgwick, of Cambridge, in the form of an apology for inability to attend the farewell banquet. It is a beautiful unfolding of the head and heart of the Christian philosopher, and must have been singularly welcome to Livingstone, whose views on some of the greatest subjects of thought were in thorough harmony with those of his friend:
Sir Roderick, too, had a kind parting word for his friend: "Accept my warmest acknowledgments for your last farewell note. Believe me, my dear friend, that no transaction in my somewhat long and very active life has so truly rewarded me as my intercourse with you, for, from the beginning to the end, it has been one continued bright gleam."
To this note Livingstone, as was his wont, made a hearty and Christian response: "Many blessings be on you and yours, and if we never meet again on earth, may we through infinite mercy meet in heaven!"
The last days in England were spent in arrangements for the expedition, settling family plans, and bidding farewell. Mrs. Livingstone accompanied her husband, along with Oswell, their youngest child. Dr. Livingstone's heart was deeply affected in parting with his other children. Amid all the hurry and bustle of leaving he snatches a few minutes almost daily for a note to one or more of them:
In his letters to his children from first to last, the counsel most constantly and most earnestly pressed is to take Jesus for their friend. The personal Saviour is continually present to his heart, as the one inestimable treasure which he longs for them to secure. That treasure had been a source of unspeakable peace and joy to himself amid all the trials and troubles of his checkered life; if his children were only in friendship with Him, he could breathe freely in leaving them, and feel that they would indeed FARE WELL.