The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-05-20

the Inhabitants. In spite of all this, however,
and through the greatest sufferings and dam
gers, DR.. Livingstone and his party at last
reached the Portuguese settlement, where the
heart of the missionary was reioiced by the
sight and kindness of an Englishman, and
where the Makololo made themselves scquains.
ed with the marvsls of civiliz alton. They went
back with guns, clothing, and presents, full of
competency and importance, feeling them.
selves the true ancients, who hsd reached to
the end of the world" d But their leader CON
Quoted them home with q mind still dissatisfied
and nquiring; it was clear that his "highway"
of civilization could not be made to Loando.
Those steamiDg swemps and tropical forests,
bound into impenetrability by immense creep
ers, which could only be cut through by q
Ratchet, were totally impracticable. He had
neither found the healthy region nor the road
to the coast
Accordingly, after toilsome and fsver-ob.
structed return, the indefatigable traveller set
out again upon q second journey from the same
point, Linyanti, the town of Sekelutu, with An.
other escort Of natives, and bound to the other
side of the continent, hoping to trace the course
of the Iambesi, and quite undaunted BY the
non-success of his first endeavor. This last
journey is the climax and conclusion of the
work, 80 far as it has yet advanced. All the
discoveries Of immediate Importance, 30 far as
the missionary's large schemes of benevolent
craftsmanship went, were made during its
course; and DR.. Livingstone had the satisfac-
ton OF finding himself right and Justified in
both his great hopes for Africa. He found,
and skirted for q long distance, the river which
had inspired him with the thought of redemp-
ton for this helpless continent; and be found
also upon its banks a region where he himself
frightened into the exhilaration of restored
health, where all the deleterious influences of
climate were modified, and where, he feels con.
vinced, European settlements could flourish,
and might be established without fear. Hav.
ing made sure of both these ineetimable facts
to his own satisfaction, he went on With light
heart to the coast, leaving his convoy, until his
return, to live and work among the Portuguese
at Tete and from Kilimane, on the East Afr.
can coast, close to the delta of the Zambesi, at
which point he will once again take up the
thread of his labors, the adventurer returned
into world which had learned to know him,
while he had very nearly forgotten it.
These, then, are the substantial results which
he presents in justification of his own hopes,
and of the endeavors to which he would aux.
iously persuade his countrymen. While he trav-
elled and wandered through the African swamps
and thickets, he did not know that the insatiate
NAV OF the British giant watered for more cot.
ton, and that political economy and private en-.
terprise were looking out anxiously for new soil
fit to produce the precious material which at
present gives an undesirable monopoly to the
American slaveholders but he did convince
himself that his Africa was not only cotton
consuming but a cotton. producing soil, able to
repay largely the efforts Of any enterprising
laborers who gave its capabilities fair trial
The acknowledged deficiency put new heart
into the wearied traveller. He had seen be-
forehand how valuable would be the check of
this new aud productive field upon the old slave.
ground; but as the necessity increases, the ad.
vantage grows with it.. Then there is indigo
growing Wild a precious weed, over the unre.
garded soil-plantations of sugar cane so ex-
tensive that our traveller says of one, +" four
thousand men eating it during two days did not
finish the whole"-coffse possible in most
places, and in some actually accomplished, not
to speak of physics without end, wholesome
SIENNA, beloved of nurseries, and precious ,oui-
nine. All this DR.. Livingstone offers us, wifi
healthy quarters, lovely scenery, abundant food,
neighbors neither ferocious NOR intractable by
nature, and deeply impressede&ith the import
ance of our national character, on the banks of
his noble Zambesi, only few days from the
sea. The fer is certainly very tempting.
There is sufficient draught of water every where
for Thames steamer, and seams of coal in
convenient proximity to supply these handy
little demons with their Indispensable food ; and
there is air which English lungs can safely
breathe, and a sun not too scorchipg for Eng.
lish constitutions to bear. If Dr.. Livingstone
is right, European colonist might reach his
heslthful African home, even through the dan
gerous fringe of that unwholesome coast, with
little greater danger than any man encounters
who has to pass through marshy or malarious
district on his way home; while the natural
gifts OF this territory, at present of little use
even to its scanty and barbarous inhabitants,
seem almost inexhaustible. Add to all this the
certainty that our trade and our merchants can.
not go thither without carrying inevitable ad.
vantages with them-that the first cotton plant.
alton in Africa tended by freemen will be the
first real and efectual stroke at the "insttu-
ton of Slavery-more effectual and real than
any sudden scheme of local emancipation and
there can be little doubt that DR.. Livingstone's
scheme calls for the most serious attention from
his own country and the civilized world.
And 1t does not seem easy to perceive on the
surfaceany particular resemblance of character
between the native tribes of the African desert
and the typical negro" of the civilized imsgi-
nation. DR.. Livingstone's clients are unques-
tionable savages but they are not the gay,
merry, thoughtless, inconsequent Sambos, music
andlsughter-loving, of the American plantations,
nor the indolent and insolent drones of the West
Indian Islands. Perhaps the race ia different
race before 1t comes through that alembic of
Slavery, which transmutes its better metal, and
leaves stain even upon the dross which it
needs generations to wear away. If British
enterprise prepared the field only to fill it with
a new and abundant crop of this wholly imprac-
ticabe animal, all the charms with which DR..
Livingstone has endowed his newly-explored
dominions would be insufficient to Justify the
experiment.
But the negro of civilization-the actual or
the emancipated slave-seems, 90 far as we are
able to judge from the sketches of DR.. Living
stone, perfectly inadequate representative of
the native african. The Makololo who accom-
panied the missionary to Loando not only
persevered with very tolerable courage through
that painful journey, but on their arrival there
set themselves to work, as soon as they found
out how they could do it, with most praise
worthy and honorable alacrity. They became
wcod-cutters, and drove hourishing trade,
maintaining themselves by their own exertions.
On his second and more successful expedition,
the result was the same, though, as that must
be reckoned only half completed, our informa-
ton 10 less full. Their conduct in regard to
their leader seems to have been perfectly
honest, faithful, and exemplary, and even the
strangers among whom he fell on his road be-
haved, on the whole, with great discretion and
very tolerab!e kindness. There seems, indeed
no ground to suppose that these reasonable
savages, whose wits are sharpened by con-
slant struggle against all the rude necessities
OF nature, could be transmogri6ed by good
fortune, which came in the shape Of active
employment and stimulated industry, into such
an unrehective and frivolous being a. the con-
tented slave or the idle freedman of Jamaica.
On thie, however muat demand in a vary areat