The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-18 00:00:00

v ILLARD'S WANDERINGS

0 0 if I N 0.

s;tourbribile Obserber.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1874.

DR. LIVINGSTONE.

THE respect which has been paid to the
memory of Livingstone by .all classes is a
remarkable testimony to the worth of his
character as the pioneer of English civilza-
tion and of Christianity at one and the same
time—a work Wl•ich is not always combined.
It is now more than seventeen years since
this distinguished traveller and missionary,
upon his arrival in London from one of those
hazardous expeditions with which his name
is associated, was presented with the gold
medal of the Royal Geographical Society—
the highest honour which can be conferred
by this organization. That was on the 15th
December, 1856; and on the 13th February,
1858, L vingstone was entertained by the
Sante society in Freemason's Hall previously
to his leaving this country in the capacity
of British consul to the Portuguese settle-
ments in Southern Africa. He was in Eng-
land for a few months in 1864, and received
a high tribute of recognition at the Bath
meeting of the 'British Association in that
year. 'Soon afterwards. on his appointment
as Her Majesty's Consul-General to all the
potentates in the interior of Africa, he
started upon his final series of travels, and
for abont two years disappeared altogether
from public view. He seemed to be as tat-
away from the reach of human informatiwt
as though his lot had for the time been cast
in another planet. Early in 1867 sin ste
reports reached this country that Living-
stone had been murdered on the western side
of Lake Nyassa. The intelligence was
brought to Zanzibar by a party of Johanna
men who had set out to accompany him in
his wanderings, and who declared that they
NV him fall under the blows of his assail-
ants. In bringing this before the Geographi-
cal Society, however, on the 11th March in
that year, Sir Roderick Murchison indicated
the points in which the narrative requited
confirmation, and pointed out how desirable
it was at once to take steps for testing the
accuracy of the rumour. The Geographical
Society met on the 25th of the same month,
when Sir Roderick Murchison still dung to
the hope that the great traveller was; alive.
There was a particular route, he said, tra-
versed by the Portuguese in 1796, which he
thought it possible Dr. Livingstone had
taken. This would also account for no let-
ters having been received from hint. S r
Samuel Baker said it was with great pain
that he entertained a different opinion; for,
from his own experience in Africa, he felt
perfectly certain of what had been Living-
stone's fate. Other eminent geographers
concurred in this view, but it was resolved
that a search expedition should be at once
organised and sent out. This started on the
9th of June, under the command of Mr. E.
D. Young, and on the 23rd October follow-
ing, intelligence was received in England by
the Cape mail that Dr. Livingstone had been
seen alive at a date subsequent to the time
mentioned as the period of his reputed
murder. On the 18th January, 1868, the
Search Expedition returned, fully satisfied
that the great traveller was not killed, as
the Johanna men had reported. Traces of
him had been obtained, and there was little
doubt that he was still alive. This wascon-
firmed on the Bth April in the same year.
when letters were received in London from
Dr. Livingstone himself, dated from a dis,
trict greatly beyond where he was alleged t,
have been slain, and announcing that he was
in good health. _ _

The subsequent successful effort of Mr.
Henry Stanley, of the New York Herold, to
discover the long lost explorer, and the ex-
traordinary difficulties which he met and
surmounted, are too familiar to need recap-
itulation. The two letters from Livingstone
which Mr. Stanley has given to the world
within the past few days, show how deeply
grateful the traveller was for the succour
despatched in such a spirit of enterprise.
Throughout these there breathed an uncon-
trollable passion to dwell upon the horrors
of that infamous slave traffic of which he hrid
been so determined a foe, and a desire to
enli4 the sympathies of the civilized world
on hchalf of the tractable but barbarously-
used races which inhabit the interior of
Africa. This theme is the principal as it is
the last subject of his pliblished writings.
It taity, indeed, be said 0f him with perfect
truth that his whole life was spent in ear-
nestly and energetically endeavouring to
combine the light of the Gospel with the ad-
vance of civilization. The extension of
Christianity and the progress of geographi-
cal science wetT his guiding principles. It
is not too much to say that his death has
been deplored by the entire nation which
has for years followed in fancy his footsteps,
as he has penetrated into the trackless wilds
of Africa. How he would have been wel-
comed could he have returned to tell of his
efforts to solve the mystery of the source of
the Nile—a problem which for centuries
has been a puzzle to geographers of every
civilized land! Unfortunately the gallant
old Scotchman miscalculated his powers of
endurance; and he, who had carried to un-
known regions the simple power of truth,
and had taught slave hunters the great story
that Englishmen care only for justice, found
his constitution give way at last. Climate
and hard work gained the mastery in the
end. "I am going home," he said sadly to
the few faithful followers who had remained
to him. Not the home beyond the rolling
seas which he loved so well, and hoped once
more to visit, but the home beyond the
skies. The worn-out frame will rest under
the groined arches of Westminster Abbey;
but the memory of such a man will long
live in the gratitude of his countrymen. His
life was one protracted example of unselfish
devotion to duty, and his efforts to benefit
the down-trodden African races, to say noth-
ing of his zeal for the prosecution of geo-
graphical knowledge will always entitle the
name of David Livingstone to the highest
esteem and admiration.