Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1867-04-06
MISCELLANEOUS.
Death of DIR. Livingstone.

A cable telegram informs us that news
has been received in England of the murder
by Caffree savages, in South Africa, of DR..
David Livingstone, one of the most famous
of African explorers. The extraordinary
length of the period which Lad elapsed
without news of him gave rise some time
since to fears for his fate, and this final in
telligence is the first that has made its way
to Europe since. Of course no particulars
of the travellers death are transmitted to us,
and we are puzzled to know what can have
stirred up the natives to this butchery of a
man from whom they never had anything
but just and kind treatment, and who had
always before eminent success in his deal
ings with them.
David Livingstone was the son OF q
Scotch small farmer, and was himself born
on his patrimonial acres, few miles out of
Glasgow, in 1915. He was bred to be a
cotton spinner, but with the indomitable
pluck common to the Scotch peasantry he
educated himself before the age of nineteen,
so that he was able at that time to sink the
shop and attend at the University of Glas-
gov the lectures in medicine and divinity,
with the idea of going afterwards to China
as medical missionary. His project was
spoiled by the outbreak of war between
Great Britain and the flowery kingdom by
the time that he was prepared with the ne
! cessary degree of licentiate of the faculty,
but his idea of travel was only diverted, not
destroyed, and he pitched next upon the
south of Africa, which has been the theatre
of his exploits since, and with the history
of the exploration of which his name is
linked as indissolubly as that of Mungo
Park with the central deserts of that old
I est, and yet worst known, of the grand di
vision of the globe. There was, indeed, q
singular series of condolences in the career
of the two. Both were Scotchmen, of the
sons Of the Lowland tenantry, both left
their country Immediately for Africa, or
the completion of the university curriculum
both made very signal contributions to oui
knowledge, and now we are forced to add
that both met the same fate, though the in
terval was sixty years, from a population
which they had always before managed
| with successful address.
DR.. Livingstone was more fortunate thar
Park at the outset of his labor, for the yea
1S41, Just after his arriya; in Africa, tina
is, he succeeded in domestigating himsel
among the Bechuanas, one of the most be
nighted of the southern tribes, and for ST,
years he abored there in his double voca
of physician and prizes. In June, 1S49, h,
set out on his first exploring expedition
and the ensuing August reached Lake Nga
mi, as unknown then as it has since beei
made familiar. In 1851. after several NOR
expeditions Of less Importance, he made on
! in which he reached the Zambesi. In 1885,
he had casual glimpse of civilization agail
for the first time in twelve years, on tril
to Capetown, undertaken for the purpose o
sending his wife to England. Mrs. Living
stone, he it said, was the daughter of mis-
sionary in Africa her husband had met ant
married her in Africa, and it was there tha
she met her death some two years since
after participation in nearly all the hard
ships of his life.
In January, 1853, Dr. Livingstone lef
Capetown on the journey out of which b
made his first book and the fame therefron
4 accruing. In this journey he went througl
4 with very notable pluck as many difficultie
I and discomforts as would have sufficea t
discourage a dozen ordinary men, and h
d ended it in May, 1856, four years after h
started, at Quiimane, on the Indian Ocear
s having traversed the continent from ocea
to ocean, distance of nearly nine thousan
miles, with (and withouD all conceivabl
kinds OF conveyance. He found BIRTHS
gunboat at Quilimane, and made the passag
in her to the Mauritius, and so home by th
overland route. He arrived home in ID,
cember, 1856, an2 was, of course, made
lion of. Numerous public meetings wei
C held in his honor, at which he found thi
n his long absence and the disuse of his mothS
r tongue had made him so unsSiled in it thu
v he was unable to express himself in it to til
: satisfaction of himself or his audiences
!. His book came out in 1857, carrying b
It popularity throughout Great Britain an
,s America.
ID DR.. Livingstone turned his back on h
Y successes and sailed for the second time
u March, 1857. The government had give
II him the consulate at Quiimane, and
e made this place the point d'dppui for b
l. next important expedition, in which he vi
accompanied by party of sarans. I'll
course taken was up the river Zambesi an
the results of this voyage are recorded
his second book, which he returned to En-
= land again in 1869 to put into shape al
publish, and which is in every body's libr
ry Last year he returned the third tin
to Africa, and we have since heard of hi
r, only in a vague way and at long intervals
,a ., OF DR.. Livingstone's qualities as an c
to plorer, the bare recital of what he has do
tells enough; and it only remains to S
5. that in his private capacity he has alwa
es been reputeG the model of citizen and
e. Christian missionary.-NeoY York World.