Lieut. Dawson then went on to state how he envied me my success;
how I had "taken the wind out of his sails" (a nautical phrase
similar to that used by Lieut. Henn); how, when he heard from my
men that Dr. Livingstone had been found, he at once crossed over
from Bagamoyo to Zanzibar, and, after a short talk with Dr. Kirk,
at once resigned.
"But do you not think, Mr. Dawson, you have been rather too hasty
in tendering your resignation, from the more verbal report of my
men?"
"Perhaps," said he; "but I heard that Mr. Webb had received a
letter from you, and that you and Livingstone had discovered that
the Rusizi ran into the lake - that you had the Doctor's letters
and despatches with you."
"Yes; but you acquired all this information from my men; you
have seen nothing yourself. You have therefore resigned before
you had personal evidence of the fact."
"Well, Dr. Livingstone is relieved and found, as Mr. Henn tells
me, is he not?"
"Yes, that is true enough. He is well supplied; he only requires
a few little luxuries, which I am going to send him by an
expedition of fifty freemen. Dr. Livingstone is found and
relieved, most certainly; and I have all the letters and
despatches which he could possibly send to his friends."
"But don't you think I did perfectly right?"
"Hardly - though, perhaps, it would come to the same thing in
the end. Any more cloth and beads than he has already would
be an incumbrance. Still, you have your orders from the Royal
Geographical Society. I have not seen those yet, and I am not
prepared to judge what your best course would have been. But
I think you did wrong in resigning before you saw me; for then
you would have had, probably, a legitimate excuse for resigning.
I should have held on to the Expedition until I had consulted
with those who sent me; though, in such an event as this, the
order would be, perhaps, to `Come home.'"
"As it has turned out, though, don't you think I did right?"
"Most certainly it would be useless for you to go to search for
and relieve Livingstone now, because he has already been sought,
found, and relieved; but perhaps you had other orders."
"Only, if I went into the country, I was then to direct my
attention to exploration; but the primary object having been
forestalled by you, I am compelled to return home. The Admiralty
granted me leave of absence only for the search, and never said
anything about exploration."
That evening I despatched a boy over to the English Consulate
with letters from the great traveller for Dr. Kirk and Mr. Oswell
Livingstone.
I was greeted warmly by the American and German residents,
who could not have shown warmer feeling than if Dr. Livingstone had
been a near and dear relation of their own.
