The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-27
SAD Ttdings from Central Africa
TIE Death OF DIR. LivingstOne.


nowned explorer and Christian missionary in
the wilds of savage Africa, DR.. David Living
stone. 1t thus appears that he died OF dysen-
terry, while travelling from Lake Bembe to
Unyanyembe that his body has been en-
balmed and is On its way to England
by way of Zanzibar. This report brief
as it is, appears too precise and
positive to be questioned We presume that
it comes from an official source at Zanzibar,
and that in truth, at last the African re-
searches and discoveries, the trials, privatons
and sufferings of the devoted Livingstone, a
pathfinder in the cause of science, civilization
and Christianity, are ended. The intelll-
gence of this melancholy event will carry
with it heartfelt sorrow into the
remotest corners OF the earth. And, like
all those seli-sacrifcing adventures into
realms unknown, whose labors have enlarged
the field and the triumphs of civilization, and
the interchanges of commerce. and the bless
ings of Christianity, she builded better than
he knew"
! He began his labors as O Christian mission
ry in South Africa, under the auspices of the
his missionary work he began his geographi-
cal explorations, and in the two characters OF
Christian missionary and geographical ex-
plorer he ended in the great field of his fruit
full researches his labor GUS and benefcent
career Once in Africa, he soon became
famous for his geographical discoveries,
and with the resulting tonors showered upon
ha If cti11
greater achievements in the gigantic task of
completing the map OF the Continent Hence
his tenacity to his great purpose, as the
browning labor of his h,e-the discovery of the
utmost sources of the mighty Nile. But even
the solution of the drainage of the Nile was
undertaken by Livingstone more in view of
the resulting benefits of Christianity to
the savage tribes of A RIGA thap for the ap-
plause and the gold medals Of geographical
societies. AS a Christian missionary his
heart was fixed in his later explor atoms upon
the mitigation of the horrors of the Central
and East African slave trade, and his appeals
from Ujiji for the intervention of Christen-
dom for the suppress slon of this horrible traffic
We're as the cries Of one who despaired
of success. And yet, when those earnest
and eloquent petitions from Livingstone
were brought home by Stanley, and thence
sent abroad as upon the four winds of heaven,
there was an answering cry from all the
realms of Caristendom which could not be
dlsregarded by that Christian nation held as
in duty bound to put forth its strong arm fol
the abolition of this East African slave traffic
fed from the Central slave traders. And the
great market has been closed, and for 1873
there were, perhaps, less by one hundred
can slaves brought TO the seaboard
in 1871. Nor has the work been con
fined to the coast. While the prayer
Of Livingstone were beng answered from
England Baker Pacha, in the service Of tn,
enlightened ruler OF Egypt, was by force O
arms breaking up and dispensing the camps o
the slave dealers on the Upper Nile. These
are the beginnings of the redemption of Africa,
to which Livingstone devoted his life, but
which he had little ground to hope would be
witnessed for generation yet to come.
Elsewhere in these columns the biographical
sketch which we give of the great explorer and
faithful Christian missionary embraces the
record of his African researches and discover
les That they will prove of incalculable
value to mankind in the ultimate develop
ment of vast centres of valuable trade
in Africa in the exchanges of northern
nations for sugar, coffee, cotton, rice and
other tropical products no intelligent reader
can doubt. 1t has been known to Europe
from the days of the old Romans that great
portion of Africa is an irreclaimable and
almost impossible desert but it is only from
the explorations Of Livingstone, Baker, Spoke
and Grant Burton and other courageous
travellers, that we have learned that very
great portion OF Africa is composed Of the rich
est and most fruitful lands ON the globe,
where only hundreds or thousands of idle and
warlike savages, now half starved, lead miser-
able existence in the midst of abundance.
There are many individuals now living in this
community, we doubt not, who will be num-
bered among our merchant princes from their
profitable ventures in the trade with
Equatorial or South Africa, and there are
some-as returning travellers from the
lakes Albert and Victoria Nyanza and
from Ujiji, and from Livingstone's great
chain of lakes over the mountains west of the
Tanganyika-who to delighted audiences will
tell the story Of the prosperous settlements of
civilized people in those beautiful lands
where Livingstone wandered among savages
till he became "a mere ruckle of bones," and,
exhausted from famine and exposure, was
dying upon his feet when rescued by deliv-
erer from land beyond the Western Sea.
Such, with the abolition of the slave trade,
are the prospective fruits from Livingstone
thirty years OF Christian labor and geographic
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