, 1874-02-25

"ONAA AO'S hAOA ~ IVA AO ~ SSSAAS
to fndit-in the midst Of his u~nresting enter
prises and Of the savages in whose memories
the solitary white mans figure will evermore
be surrounded with a legendary halo and a
sacred awe.
Sir Samuel Baker, at the Brighton banquet
the other day. remarked that a passion for
travel and exploration was almost instructive
IN the %bOyhood of an island race, and especially
IN the jewellers on its coasts. He had himself,
as a boy, gazing upon the sea from the cliffs
at Nottingham, felt the longing for escape
beyond the wandering horizon ofsky and wave.
Livingstone may have inherited both the explor-
ing and the missionary spirit from ancestors who
dWelt on the little island on the Argyleshire
coast. Believers in the virtue Of gentle blood
will recall that be came from an ancient family.
and his grandfather died at Culloden, fighting
for the last of the Stuarts; while those who
cling lovingly to the old faith will remember that
scarcely a century ago the forefathers of this
earnest and thorough Protestant, whose re-
ligion was so simple, so practical, and SO hu-
name, were not quite voluntary converts to the
doctrines Of the Reformation. But other char
acteristios of David Livingatone's earliest years
are more interesting as indications of the des-
tiny that awaited him after the apprenticeship
of school and college, and the rude experience
of honest poverty struggling for o livelihood.
Never was a family motto less i%ronical than
that of the LivingstoneS in this instance. "Be
honest was the watchword of this great ira
Veller'S career to his latest breath. He was
impatient only of f~alseness, and intolerant only
of insincerity and pretenoe. AS a "hand" in a
cotton-miIl, placing his book On his spinning
jenny to read as he worked amidst the roar of
The machinery; earning just enough by his
daily labour in the summer months to enable
Ly1, -. J,-o+o -, ~;uAou, - ~ ,4,1;.- AlzA
might qualify him for the work of a foreign
missionary; diligently instruoting himself in
religious and classical literature, and in natural
science, devouring every record of travel and
discovery he could lay his hand upon, he was
brooding with a persistent and patient deter
minatiOn over his future as a pioneer of Chris
tian civilization in heather countries. 1t was
to China that his thoughts were then directed
and, in addition to his other pursuits, and to
his attendance upon divinity lectures, he stu
died medicine so asSiduously that in 1888 he
was admitted a Licentiate Of the Faculty.
Thus armed at all points with the weapons of
practical knowledge and beneficence, he offered
his services to the London Missionary Society
as tho most unsectarian of all such institutions,
and his services were cordially accepted. It
was the Chinese Wa of 1910 that changed
his destination and in 1910 he left England
upon ms hrs uLSSlOIl 70 CUQIu AITlCds WubE0
he laboured during five consecutive years, and
married the admirable lady who knew so many
of his after peril3 and hardsbips, and died, as he
has died, on the scene where the strength Of
her womanly devotion had never failed but
with her parting breath.
Livingstone's career counts three great jour
neys. In 1919 the missionary became for the
first time an explorer; in 1852 be made his
celebrated discovery of Lake Ngami; and be-
tween 1915 and 1855 be had twice traverSed,
with no white man for q comrade, and on foot, the
whole expanse Of the continent of Africa, from
the Eastern to the Western Ocean. Alone he
had opened to Christian civilization that vast
unknown world. On his return to England,
Sir Roderick Murchison paid eloquent homage
in the Chair of the Geographical Society to his
sound knowledge as q pioneer Of science and
commerce, to his researches as a physical geo.
grapher and as a sgeologist, to his services on
behalf of human progress and civilization and
when he went back to Africa he was accom-
panied by the universal sympathy and admira-
ton of the country, to which the Queen herself
and her Ministers had given emphatic express
sion, for that single-minded simplicity and
force of character which no difficulties could
discourage and no public and social honours i'm
pair. Then followed his great discoveries of the
Lakes Nyassa and Shirwa, of the mouths Of
the Zambesi River, of the sources of its tri-