No
harassing anxieties, distraction of mind, long separation from home
and kindred, can make him complain. He thinks "all will come out
right at last;" he has such faith in the goodness of Providence.
The sport of adverse circumstances, the plaything of the miserable
beings sent to him from Zanzibar - he has been baffled and
worried, even almost to the grave, yet he will not desert the
charge imposed upon him by his friend, Sir Roderick Murchison.
To the stern dictates of duty, alone, has he sacrificed his home
and ease, the pleasures, refinements, and luxuries of civilized
life. His is the Spartan heroism, the inflexibility of the Roman,
the enduring resolution of the Anglo-Saxon - never to relinquish his
work, though his heart yearns for home; never to surrender his
obligations until he can write Finis to his work.
But you may take any point in Dr. Livingstone's character, and
analyse it carefully, and I would challenge any man to find a
fault in it. He is sensitive, I know; but so is any man of a high
mind and generous nature. He is sensitive on the point of being
doubted or being criticised. An extreme love of truth is one of
his strongest characteristics, which proves him to be a man of
strictest principles, and conscientious scruples; being such, he
is naturally sensitive, and shrinks from any attacks on the
integrity of his observations, and the accuracy of his reports.
He is conscious of having laboured in the course of geography and
science with zeal and industry, to have been painstaking, and as
exact as circumstances would allow. Ordinary critics seldom take
into consideration circumstances, but, utterly regardless of the
labor expended in obtaining the least amount of geographical
information in a new land, environed by inconceivable dangers and
difficulties, such as Central Africa presents, they seem to take
delight in rending to tatters, and reducing to nil, the fruits of
long years of labor, by sharply-pointed shafts of ridicule and
sneers.
Livingstone no doubt may be mistaken in some of his conclusions
about certain points in the geography of Central Africa, but he
is not so dogmatic and positive a man as to refuse conviction.
He certainly demands, when arguments in contra are used in
opposition to him, higher authority than abstract theory. His
whole life is a testimony against its unreliability, and his
entire labor of years were in vain if theory can be taken in
evidence against personal observation and patient investigation.
The reluctance he manifests to entertain suppositions,
possibilities regarding the nature, form, configuration of concrete
immutable matter like the earth, arises from the fact, that a man
who commits himself to theories about such an untheoretical subject
as Central Africa is deterred from bestirring himself to prove them
by the test of exploration. His opinion of such a man is, that he
unfits himself for his duty, that he is very likely to become a
slave to theory - a voluptuous fancy, which would master him.
It is his firm belief, that a man who rests his sole knowledge of
the geography of Africa on theory, deserves to be discredited. It
has been the fear of being discredited and criticised and so made
to appear before the world as a man who spent so many valuable
years in Africa for the sake of burdening the geographical mind
with theory that has detained him so long in Africa, doing his
utmost to test the value of the main theory which clung to him,
and would cling to him until he proved or disproved it.
This main theory is his belief that in the broad and mighty
Lualaba he has discovered the head waters of the Nile. His grounds
for believing this are of such nature and weight as to compel him
to despise the warning that years are advancing on him, and his
former iron constitution is failing. He believes his speculations
on this point will be verified; he believes he is strong enough
to pursue his explorations until he can return to his country,
with the announcement that the Lualaba is none other than the Nile.
On discovering that the insignificant stream called the Chambezi,
which rises between 10 degrees S. and 12 degrees S., flowed
westerly, and then northerly through several lakes, now under
the names of the Chambezi, then as the Luapula, and then as the
Lualaba, and that it still continued its flow towards the north
for over 7 degrees, Livingstone became firmly of the opinion that
the river whose current he followed was the Egyptian Nile. Failing
at lat. 4 degrees S. to pursue his explorations further without
additional supplies, he determined to return to Ujiji to obtain them.
And now, having obtained them, he intends to return to the point
where he left off work. He means to follow that great river until
it is firmly established what name shall eventually be given the
noble water-way whose course he has followed through so many sick
toilings and difficulties. To all entreaties to come home, to all
the glowing temptations which home and innumerable friends offer,
he returns the determined answer: -
"No; not until my work is ended."
I have often heard our servants discuss our respective merits.
"Your master," say my servants to Livingstone's, "is a good man -
a very good man; he does not beat you, for he has a kind heart;
but ours - oh! he is sharp - hot as fire" - "mkali sana, kana moto."
From being hated and thwarted in every possible way by the Arabs
and half-castes upon first arrival in Ujiji, he has, through
his uniform kindness and mild, pleasant temper, won all hearts.
I observed that universal respect was paid to him. Even
the Mohammedans never passed his house without calling to pay
their compliments, and to say, "The blessing of God rest on
you." Each Sunday morning he gathers his little flock around him,
and reads prayers and a chapter from the Bible, in a natural,
unaffected, and sincere tone; and afterwards delivers a short
address in the Kisawahili language, about the subject read to them,
which is listened to with interest and attention.
