The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-07-27
LIVINGSTONE.
Letters from the Explorer TO James
Gordon Bennett, Jr.-Recitai OF
His Adventures.

Gordon Bennett, Jr.-Recital OF
His Adventures.
New YORK, July 25.-The Herald
received by cable tonight the following
letter from DR.. Livingstone, directed to
James Gordon Bennett, ]. R., which
reached London in Stanley's mail:
UJrJr, ON THE TANGANJIKA,
EAST AFRICA, November, 1871.
James Gordon Bennett, Jr., Esq:
MY DEAR SIR: 1t Is in general
somewhat difficult to write to one We
bwS-neyer seen. 1t feels so much
like addressing an abstract idea, but
presence of your representative Mr.. II.
NJ. Stanley, in this distant region
takes away the strangeness | should
otherwise have felt; aud in writing to
thank you for the extreme kindness
that prompted you to send him, feel
quite at home. III explain the forlorn
condition in which he found me you
will easily perceive that | have good
reason to use very strong expressions of
gratitude.
came to Ujiji off a tramp Of be-
tween four hundred and five hundred
miles, beneath blazing, vertical sun.
having been batfled, worried, defeated
and forced to return when almost in
sight Of the end of the geographical part
of nv mission, by a number Of half
caste Moslem slaves sent to me from
Zanzibar, instead of men. Sore hearted,
made still sorer by
THE woFUL SIGHTS 1 HAD SEEN
of mans inhumanity to man, reacted
and told on my bodily frame and de-
pressed it beyond measure. thought
that | was dying on my feet.
1t is not too much to say that almost
every step was in pain, and reached
Ujiji mere ruckle OF bones. There |
found that some s500 worth OF goods
which had ordered from Zanzibar had
unaccountably been entrusted to a
drunken, halfcaste Moslem sailor, r,who,
after squandering them for sixteen
months on the way to Ujiji, finished up
bv selling off all that remained for
salves and ivory for himself. He had
OWNED on the Koran and found that l
was dead. He had also written to the
Governor of Unyanyemmbe that he had
sent slaves after me to Manyema, who
returned and reported my decease, and
begged permission to sell off the few
goods his drunken appetite had spared.
He, however, knew perfectly well
from men who had seen me that was
alive and waiting for goods and men,
but as for the man he is evidently an
idiot, and there being no law here ex.
cept that of the dagger or musket, l
had to sit down in great weakness, with
out anything save few barter clothes
and beads which had taken the pre-
caution to leave here in case Of ex-
treme need.
The near prospect OF beggary among
the Ujijlans made me miserable. l
could not despair, because | laughed 80
much q, friend who, on reaching the
mouth of the Zambesi, said he was
tenn pted to despair because he had no
photograph Of his wife.
thought Of myself as the man who
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho,
but neither priest, nor Levite, nor Sa-
maritan could possibly happen my way.
Yet
A GOOD SAMARITAN
was close at hand, and one Of my peo-
ple rushed up at the top OF his speed,
and in great excitement gasped out,
"An Englishman is coming | see him"
and off he darted to meet him. The
American flag. the first ever seen in
these parts at the head OF a caravan,
told me the nationality OF the stranger.
I am as cold and non-demoustrative as
we islanders are usually repuled TO be,
but your kindness made my frame
thrill. 1t was indeed overwhelming,
and | said in my soul, let the richest
blessings descend from the Highest on
you and yours.
The news told me was thrilling.
Mighty political changes on the conti-
nent and on the other side OF the At
lan,ic, the election Of General Grant
and many other topics riveted my at
tention for days together, and had an
immediate and beneficial effect on my
health. had been without news from
home for years save what / could CLEAN
from a few Saturday Revievs and Punch
OF 1868. Ny appetite was revived, and
in a week I began to feel strong again.
Stanley brought most kind and en-
couraging dispatches from Lord Clsr-
endon-whose loss sincerely deplore-I
the first have received from the For.
egn Office since 1866, and the informa-
ton that the British Government had
sent a thousand pounds sterling to my
aid. Up to his arrival was not aware
of any pecuniary aid.
1 came unsalaried, but this want is
now happily repaired, and ! am anxious
that you and all my friends should
know that though uncheered by letter,
l have
STUCK TO THE TASK
which my friend, Sir Roderick Muir
Gibson, set me at with John Bullish
teuacity, believing that all would come
right at last. ;,
The watershed of South Central
Africa is seven hundred miles in length.
Fountains therein are almost innumer~
able. That is, it would take mans
lifetime to count them. From the
watershed they converge into four large
rivers, and these again into two mighty
streams in the great Nile valley, which
begins in ten degrees to twelve degrees
south latitude. 1t was long ere night
dawned on the ancient problem, and
gave me Q clear idea of drainage. /
had to feel my way every step Of the
way, and Was generally cropping in the