Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-07-26
DIR. DAVID LIVINGSTO E.
A Brief Memoir Of the Great Ex.
p1orer.

DIR. DAVID LIvINGSTO E.
A Brief Memoir Of the Great Ex.
| plorer.
DR.. David Livingstone, the re
nowned traveller and explorer Of the
wilds of Central Africa, may be apt
ly quoted as an example of what
may be achieved by self denial and
steady determination. They who
knew young David Livingstone
who toiled early and late as "piecer'
in a cotton mill in the neighborhood
of Glasgow, and whose father was
the propieter of little grocer's
shop, could never have imagined
that they should one day see him
rank among the few great ones
who, unaided, lift themselves high
above common men; not that Da-
| vid's father was common man, for
according to his son, che had too
honest conscience to become
rich;" which one may fairly assume
to allude to the absence of adulter-
alton from the good mans gro
ceries.
At very early age he displayed
great taste for works on science
and religion, and prepared in such
good earnest to master the grand
old Latin language that by the time
he had completed his sixteenth year
he was tolerably well acquainted
with Virgil and Horace, and other
Latin authors. Not only were all
his spare hours devoted to reading,
but even at work he would place
his book on the spinning jenny, and
catch sentence every now and
then in the course of his labor
When he was nineteen, he was pro-
NOTED to a cotton spinner, and with
the fruit of this laborious but we'll
paid work he attended Greek and
medical classes, and, in the winter,
lectures.
About this time the idea of a
missionary life occurred to him,
and his hopes were fixed on obtain
ing a good medical education and
SO to qualify himself as a candidate
for missionary duties. China was
the field he had in view, but, the
war breaking out, he was doomed to
disappointment. About this time,
however, he became acquainted with
Mr.. Moffat, who had spent consid-
erable time in Africa, in the capac.
ity of missionary, and was by
that gentleman persuaded to give
his services to the mission cause in
that country.
In 1910 he embarked for the vast
and unexplored continent of Africa,
and remained there sixteen years.
The result of those years of explo-
ring and missionary enterprises is
we'll known. In 1857 he published
his missionary Travels in Africa"
a work which was hailed with uni
versal satisfaction, as we'll for its
literary merit as for it's intense in
terest and abundance of rare and
valuable information. We cannot
pay him a greater compliment than
to say that this part Of his life is
every way worthy of the man of
such a boyhood. All the essential
qualities of a great traveller he
seems to possess; industry, pcrse-
verancc, an indomitable will and a
large share of self.esteem, which,
by-the-by, must be an invaluable in
gredient in the composition of a So
journer among savages.
On the 10th of March, 1858, Mr..
Livingstone, after a private inter-
view with Queen Victoria, once
more set out on his Christian pill
grimage, amply provided by the
English Government with a valua-
BILE cargo and every possible requi-
site. He was absent six years, and
on his return to England, July 20,
1864, proceeded to publish his mar
ative Of an "Expedition to the Fam
bezi and it's Tributaries" giving
the result of his long sojourn in
parts hitherto unknown.
He set out again in 1866, and for
a time intelligence came more or
less directly. Then all tidings
ceased, and at last reports reached
the coast that he had been murder
ed by the natives. Other reports,
however, led to hopes that he was
still alive. and though governments
and scientific societies expressed
regret and sympathy, it was left to
the energy and generosity of an
American editor, the late James
Gordon Bennett, of tho New York
Herald, to fit out an expedition to
discover the great explorer. This
expedition, led by Mr.. Stanley, was
triumphant; it penetrated to the in
terror amid great peril, and was
met by DR.. Livingstone, whom it
escorted once more within the pale
of civilized man.
A young Kentucky physician,
who had. been regularly educated