The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-07-26
DAVID LIVINGSTONE.

DR.. Livingstone's story Told by Him.
self-The Letter of the Great Ex-
With much qualification we publish in the
HERALD to-day the interesting letter of DR..
Livingstone, delivered to our agent, Mr.. STAN
ley, at Ujiii, in November last and transmit
ted over the cable from London yesterday.
This letter, traced by the hand and dictated
by the heart Of the great traveller, is destined
to create profound sensation throughout the
civilized world. 1t will be more welcome than
the most elaborate and graphic description of
his travels, trials and discoveries that could be
written by the ablest pen, for it brings the
devoted old man face to face with all who read
his earnest words, and tells them in his own
language, eloquent in it's simplicity, of his
sutferings, his hopes, his disappointments, his
touching faith his triumphs, his unaffected
gratitude and his devotion to the task he has
assumed. The world will know more of Dr.
Livingstone from this letter than it has ever
known before, despite the volumes that have
been written of his hbors and in his praise :;
more Of his true character, more of his brave
constancy, more of the great underlying spirit
of Christianity that shapes and controls the
action of his life. We learn from his own
words of his desolate condition when found
by the HERALD expedition; of his excitement
to his relief; of the injuries inflicted upon him
through the dishonesty of the agents so care
lessly chosen to convey the supplies forwarded
to him by his friends; of the valuable discoveries
he had made in the midst of pain, discourage
ment and danger; and we find him finishing
up his compact and simple narrative with the
prayer that his disclosures regarding the terri
BILE Ujijian slavery may lead to the suppression
of the inhuman traffic along the whole east
coast of Africa, and give freedom and happi-
ness to q splendid country now ''blghted as
with a curse from above"
DR.. Livingstone describes his condition when
met by the HERALD expedition as ''forlorn. +"
weary tramp OF four or five hundred miles
beneath blazing vertical sun, added to the
sickening scenes of inhumanity he had
witnessed ou the journey and the heart
burnings arising from defeat brought
about by the treachery OF his at
tendants, had SO depressed his physical
energy that, in his own expressive language,
he thought he was dying ON his feet. When
he had reached Uiiji, "a mere ruckle of
bones" the goods he had expected to find
there were missing, and he was dismayed at
the discovery that drunken half-caste Nloslem
tailor, to whose keeping they had been en-
trusted, had made away with them for his own
profit This taithless agent had "divined on
the Koran" and was told by that authority
that Livingstone was dead, whereupon, like a
good believer, he had turned the property of
the dog of a Christian to his own use. There
being no law in Ujiji but that of the dagger
and the musket, to which Dr. Livingstone was
not likely to apply for redress, he was COM
PEELED to submit to the loss and to look calmly
in the face the unpromising prospect of beg
gary among the Ujijians. We have here an
illustration of the supplemented faith of this
great and good man. He could not even then
despair Trusting in an overseeing Provi-
dence, self-reliant in the consciousness
of his own purity Of motive, having
once laughed at the superstition of a
friend who had been discouraged by the acct
dental breaking Of a photograph, the idea OF
despair had in it to him some smack Of the
ludicrous. Yet he could not resist the feeling
! of sadness that oppressed him. and when THU