The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-05-20
THE MISSIONARY EXPLORER.
From Blackwood.

|
THE MISSIONARY EXPLORER. p
From Blackwood
1t is some time since any volume has madt
80 much noise, or excited so great an interese
a. the narrative of DIR. Livingstone. This is the
story of q remarkable man, but II ia not other
wise a remarkable book and it is to the credit
of this generation, which loves "style" so
much, and is 30 greatly influenced by literary
graces, that work 60 entirely devoid of both
should, nevertheless, have attained so remarks,
BILE popularity. We permit the great Wing
historian to put upon record almost anything
he pleases, because not man OF us has the
heart to condemn a narrative so fascinating
and we receive the widest caprices of su
amateur as serious criticism on art, simply
because nature has gifted the said amateur
with the most wonderful graces of language
| yet we are not 80 unressoning in our admira-
tions "a we seem. When a man has really
something to tell US, we are content that he
should tell it in bis own way. 1t is large
testimonial to the good sense of the age, which,
after all, cannot be so superficial as people
call it. DR.. Livingstone has report to make.
of travels and an enterprise, quite wonderful,
and, We presume, almost unparalleled. BE
says, with evident truth, that he would rather
undertake his journey over again, than write
his account of it and, accordingly, no one at
tenpts to Judge him on ground he does not
attempt to take. he is not q literary man, nor
dilettanti. He holds the pen in a toil-harden-
ed hand, which has been more familiar with
axe and gun than with the dainty implements
of civilized life. What he has to tell US of is
an unknown and undeveloped continent, the
fourth quarter of the world country hitherto
shut up and barred by unhealthy coasts and
untracked deserts; great, savage, impenetra
BILE waste, where the great old lords of the
forest still exist and reign where the least
religious race of the world live their naked life
of exposure and privation; and upon the coast
of which our own Empire, the biggest police,
man in the universe, keeps an expensive and
halfsuccessful watch, lest the poor black souls,
for whom we can do nothing better, should be
stolen and sold away. DIR. Livingstone, how
ever, means to do something better for them.
he has been high up into the home of the race,
where there is neither policeman nor slave
trade, but villagefuls and tribes of trainable
human creatures like ourselves. He has seen
the natural highways which track that silent
and unrepresented territory. The soil has dis
closed to him its voiceless secrets in leaf Of
tree and form Of weed, which tell tales OF un-
made fortune to the educated eye. He has
fouad out how men can live and travel in the
deserts, and how commerce may enter and
flourish. BE comes home laden with hopes,
prospects, and promises-the noble idea that he
is adding power and wealth to his own coun-
try while he carries salvation to another; and
it is all this, the promises, the prospects, the
hopes-a capacity Which seems to him un
limited, yet want which is touching and
excessive-which make up the Importance of
DIR. Livingstone's book. All this he knows
all this he has cotne to tell anxiously and
- opl
without any deprecstory criticisms, the public
has been heartily coatent to incline its serious
ear. o..
While we write, lie is Just about returning
out of a serious course of lion or hero worship,
which, it is to be hol,ed, has done no worse for
him than to bore md weary his spirit. DR..
Livngstone's fame nd popularity have spread
much beyond the lirsits Of any peculiar circle;
but for real hearty, sincere heroworship, fool
ing to the very top of ones bent, there is
certainly no community In existence halt so
successful as "the religious public" The
lion of the coteres is nothing to the lion Of the
churches, and we trust that the African apostle
has not found the ordeal too hard for him. he
goes out with all the encouragements and aids
which science can bestow upon him, with an
unparalleled amount of public sympathy, and
with even the recognition and authority Of
Government to give dignity to his further
labors; and it now remains to be seen what
capabilities remain in the off ,e which he has
already raised in ,onorable reputation, and
from which he has .aught ia to expect in the
future still greater insults.
1t is not necessary, after everybody has
heard from this ira, ellers own lips 80 much as
it was needful to tel of his own history, to give
any sketch of that ere. He was one of those
Scotch students Who never could by any
chance be fellows Christ Church or Trinity
one of those grave laborers towards a special
end, who strike thru nigh Latin and Greek, per-
haps without any n markable devotion to those
exclusive and jea ,us channels of learning,
mastering 80 much IS must be mastered amid
the cark of daily k,bors-a man who did not
pursue bis educatio through the hard struggle
of its requirement merely for education's sake,
with the disinterest d zeal of an Oxford scholar,
but who worked b, rdly through his necessary
curiiculum as cans; and not as an end.
Reading amid the chatter of machinery in a
Glasgow mill taugl the future explorer how to
read and write ami the chatter of surrounding
savages and the hardness of a poor mans
early life trained m for the privatons of his
mission. he wei out of the heart Of the
Scottish peasant: orld, while most Cottar
fathers still justifs the picture Of the Saturday
Night; he worked his way through medical
training and theolo ical lectures, indebted to no
one and, finally, y dint of disappointment in
his first idea of G. ing to China, fell into the
Office and vocation appointed for him, and for
which he has sho, himself so fit. he went
to Africa eighteen years ago, to join the mis-
sionary party viii b has already made itself
celebrated by the .arrative and labors of Moi
fat, married there be daughter of his predec g.
sor, and lived the. .sual life of a missionary
at the parent sta ion in the first place, and
afterwards at one. bundled by himself, which q
long drought and raid of Beers at last com
PEELED him to aba, don-for nearly ten years
Then the afiatus f the explorer came upon
this prophet in y desert. He began to dis
cover, and the imphlse grew upon him--but il
ID only after loIy course of quiet life and
unrecorded exertiAns among those savages-
exertions which Sc I'm to have spread his infu
ence widely amo ,g them, but which il !,
not easy to trace in his story, where all ths
ordinary details missionary experience ar,
omitted, and which is, probably in conseq uence
somewhat confuse and hurried as narrative
and not to be folio red easily-that the charac
teristic feature of is personal vocation begin
70 be developed. This, which is the great dis
tinction of Dr. Ii ;ngstone's work and book
is long, toilsomef SOLITARY, and, most remarka
Bile of ali, succesy)el journey, from one end I,
another Of the scorchipg continent, Of whicl
} this event hes made him q kind Of hors
superior and suzerain. 4
The occasion Of this remarkable undertakin
is perhaps as singular as the enterprise itseli
The missionary, obliged to abandon the frs
scene of his independent labors at Kolobeng
where tyrsnnicsl and bsrbarous colony 9
!. African Dutchme,, opposed and insuited bot
. himself and his papils, set out up country to
- wards the lands Ut q remarkable chief, who's