Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-24
The Valuable Lives Sacrificed in
the Exploration of Africa-An
Affecting Incident In the Life of
m. o,sdnrnn -
DIR. Livingstone.
From the London Telegraph

from the London Telegraph
If England, in other other ages sinned
heavily against Africa, part of the punish
ment may be that, in modern times, so
many of her noblest sons have perished in
the wilderness. Almost every year in the
nineteenth century, we have given, vic
tim TO Africa. To say nothing OF the hun
dreds who have perished in the blockading
squadrons, we have lost travellers, mission
aries, men of science-Mungo Park, Major
Houghton, Captain Tuckey, Major Peddie,
Richie, DIR. Oudney, Major Laing, Captain
ClappertOn,- and his associates Captain
Pearse and DIR. Morrison, Richard Lander.
Nay, to come to our own days, it will not
soon be forgotten how, al Livingstone's ap-
peal, the enthusiasm of Oxford and Cam
bridge was reused, and the Universities
Mission was established; nor how that most
nobly intended enterprise met with disas-
ter on disaster; how the illustrious
swampy island at the spot where
the waters of the Ruo join the Shirei; how
his friends soon shared his fate-Burrup,
fresh from the most wonderful canoe voy-
age yet made in Africa: Scudamore whose
genial nature had so long kept his COM
panions in good heart; and Dickinson,
the brave and faithful doctor. Nay, why
do we speak even of these? Bitterly as
Livingstone. must have mourned for men
who had, perhaps, listened only too ca
gerly to his voice and relied too implicit
ly upon him, heavier grief-the heavi-
est that such heart could know-had
been reserved for him.. For many years
he had seen little of his wife, the daughter
of the famous missionary Moffat, and
worthy both of such a father and such a
husband. On the 1st day of February,
1862, she reioined him at one of the mouths
of the Zambesi, and they went up the
river in the little Pioneer, his steamer
There was a hope that Bishop Mackenzie
would meet them when they reached the
Shire; and it is a touching incident In the
story, that when Livingstone welcomed
his wife to land, the Bishop had not been
deal for more than tour-and-twenty
hours. Up went the little steamer, the
beat of her paddles sounding strangely in
the long and lonely reaches of the Afri can
river; on it went, past belts of niau-
groves, and then between vast plains where
the grass grew six feet high, and clumps of
woodland, rich in palm and mimosa and
the enormous baobab. The mountain
ranges were in sight when they rested at a
village hundred miles from the sea. Liv
ingStone had much work to do further on;
but he was by his wife'S side when toward
the end OF April she grew faint and ill. In
a day or two she was down with the Afri-
can lever; and not all the experience of her
husband nor the skill of DIR. Kirk could
save her from death. Son the last Sunday
in April" says an eyewitness, "the end
was evidently near; for a certain fixed
ness of feature and heavy stertor made
this too plain. BY the side of rude bed
formed of boxes, but with a soft mattress,
and not therefore uncomfortable, on which
lay his dying wife, sat Livingstone, who had
passed through so many dangers. 1t will
be rudely lifting no vail that should remain
unified, if say he was weeping like
child. In less than an hour, as the last rays
Of da i1or n q
face of the sufferer that final change that
sorrow and anxiety shall never more alter {;
and the spirit returned to God who gave it."
II was the most pathetic cOfbereavements, the
darkest of clouds that could overshadow
such man; and2yet surely from that time
the bitterness of death was past. What was
dearest on the earth was lost to him; yet
few years of lonely labor, saddened al
ways by that thought, and his own time
would come, and his weary feet would find
rest at last, at home or in the wilderness,
as God might order.