"Yes; don't you see it is?" replied Livingstone, encouragingly.
When Livingstone reached his countrymen on the ship he could scarcely speak
his native language; the words would not come at his call.
He had spoken it but little for thirteen years; and for three and a half,
except for a short time at Loanda, not at all.
Sekwebu became a great favorite on shipboard, but he was bewildered
by the crowd of new ideas that rushed upon his mind.
"What a strange country this is," he said, "all water!"
When they reached Mauritius, he became insane, and tried to jump overboard.
Livingstone's wife had, during her visit to their country,
become a great favorite with the Makololo, who called her `Ma Robert'
- "Robert's Mother" - in honor of her young son.
"Come, Sekwebu," said Livingstone, "we are going to Ma Robert."
This struck a chord in his bosom.
"Oh yes," said he; "where is she? Where is Robert?" And for the moment
he seemed to recover.
But in the evening a fresh accession of insanity occurred.
He attempted to spear one of the crew, and then leaped overboard,
and, though he could swim well, pulled himself down, hand over hand,
by the cable. His body was never recovered.
From Mauritius Livingstone sailed for England, which he reached
on the 12th of December, 1856 - four and a half years after he had parted
from his family at Cape Town.
He was received with unwonted honors. The President of
the Royal Geographical Society, at a special meeting held to welcome him,
formally invited him to give to the world a narrative of his travels.
Some knavish booksellers paid him the less acceptable compliment
of putting forth spurious accounts of his adventures, one at least of which
has been republished in this country. Livingstone, so long accustomed
to a life of action, found the preparation of his book a harder task
than he had imagined. "I think," he says, "that I would rather
cross the African continent again than undertake to write another book."
We trust that he will yet do both. He would indeed have set out
on another African journey nearly a year ago to conduct
his faithful Makololo attendants back to their own country,
had not the King of Portugal relieved him from all anxiety on their account,
by sending out directions that they should be supported at Tete
until his return.
Our abstract does, at best, but scanty justice to the most interesting,
as well as most valuable, of modern works of travel. It has revolutionized
our ideas of African character as well as of African geography.
It shows that Central Africa is peopled by tribes barbarous, indeed,
but far from manifesting those savage and degrading traits which
we are wont to associate with the negro race. In all his long pilgrimage
Livingstone saw scarcely a trace of the brutal rites and bloody superstitions
of Dahomey and Ashanti. The natives every where long for intercourse
with the whites, and eagerly seek the products of civilized labor. In regions
where no white men had ever been seen the cottons of Lowell and Manchester,
passed from tribe to tribe, are even now the standard currency.
Civilized nations have an equal interest in opening intercourse
with these countries, for they are capable of supplying those
great tropical staples which the industrious temperate zones must have,
but can not produce. Livingstone found cotton growing wild all along
his route from Loanda to Kilimane; the sugar-cane flourishes spontaneously
in the valley of "The River"; coffee abounds on the west coast; and indigo
is a weed in the delta of the Zambesi. Barth also finds these products
abundant on the banks of the Benuwe and Shari, and around Lake Tsad.
The prevalent idea of the inherent laziness of the Africans must be abandoned,
for, scattered through the narratives of both these intrepid explorers
are abundant testimonies of the industrious disposition of the natives.
Livingstone, as befits his profession, regards his discoveries
from a religious stand-point. "The end of the geographical feat," he says,
"is the beginning of the missionary enterprise." But he is a philosopher
as well as a preacher, recognizing as true missionaries the man of science
who searches after hidden truths, the soldier who fights against tyranny,
the sailor who puts down the slave-trade, and the merchant
who teaches practically the mutual dependence of the nations of the earth.
His idea of missionary labor looks to this world as well as the next.
Had the Bakwains possessed rifles as well as Bibles - had they raised cotton
as well as attended prayer-meetings - it would have been better for them.
He is clearly of the opinion that decent clothing is of more immediate use
to the heathen than doctrinal sermons. "We ought," he says, "to encourage
the Africans to cultivate for our markets, as the most effectual means,
next to the Gospel, of their elevation." His practical turn of mind
suffers him to present no fancy pictures of barbarous nations
longing for the Gospel. His Makololo friends, indeed, listened respectfully
when he discoursed of the Saviour, but were all earnestness
when he spoke of cotton cloths and muskets. Sekeletu favored the missionary,
not as the man who could give him Bibles and tracts, but as the one
by whose help he hoped to sell his ivory for a rifle, a sugar-mill,
and brass wire.
Livingstone's missionary scheme is accommodated to the actual state of things.
It rests quite as much upon traders as preachers. He would open
a communication by the Zambesi to the heart of the continent.
Upon the healthy, elevated region overlooking the low, fertile basin
he would establish trading posts, supplied with European wares.
We can not wonder that the directors of the Missionary Society
looked coldly upon this scheme, and wrote to him that they were
"restricted in their power of aiding plans connected only remotely
with the spread of the Gospel;" nor can we regret that Livingstone,
feeling his old love of independence revive, withdrew from his connection
with the Society, for the purpose of carrying out his own plans.
With all respect for the worthy persons who manage missionary societies,
we can not but believe that the man who led so large a party
across the African continent will accomplish more for the good cause
when working out his own plans than he would do by following out their ideas.
