The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death | Page 3

importance of some of his greatest discoveries, it may be doubted if
ever Geographer went forth strengthened with so much true power. Let
us add to these a sincere trust that slavery, the "great open sore of the
world," as he called it, might under God's good guidance receive
healing at his hands; a fervent hope that others would follow him after
he had removed those difficulties which are comprised in a profound
ignorance of the physical features of a new country, and we have the
marching orders of him who left us in August 1865 never to return
alive.
Privileged to enjoy his near personal friendship for a considerable
period in Africa, and also at home, it has been easy to trace--more
especially from correspondence with him of late years--that
Livingstone wanted just some such gigantic problem as that which he
attacked at the last to measure his strength against: that he finally
overrated and overtaxed it I think all must admit.
He had not sufficiently allowed for an old wound which his
constitution received whilst battling with dysentery and fever, on his
celebrated journey across Africa, and this finally sapped his vital
powers, and, through the irritation of exhaustion, insidiously clouded

much of his happiness.
Many of his old friends were filled with anxiety when they found that
he intended to continue the investigation of the Nile sources, for the
letters sent home by Mr. Stanley raised the liveliest apprehensions,
which, alas! soon proved themselves well grounded.
The reader must be warned that, however versed in books of African
travel he may be, the very novelty of his situation amongst these pages
will render him liable perhaps to a danger which a timely word may
avert. Truly it may be said he has an _embarras de richesses!_ To
follow an explorer who by his individual exertions has filled up a great
space in the map of Africa, who has not only been the first to set foot
on the shores of vast inland seas, but who, with the simple appliances
of his bodily stature for a sounding pole and his stalwart stride for a
measuring tape, lays down new rivers by the hundreds, is a task
calculated to stagger him. It may be provoking to find Livingstone
busily engaged in bargaining for a canoe upon the shores of Bangweolo,
much as he would have secured a boat on his own native Clyde; but it
was not in his nature to be subject to those paroxysms in which
travellers too often indite their discoveries and descriptions.
At the same time these journals will be found to contain innumerable
notes on the habits of animals, birds, and fishes, many of them
probably new species, and on phenomena in every direction which the
keen eye searched out as the great traveller moved amongst some of the
grandest scenes of this beautiful world: it may be doubted if ever eye so
keen was backed by so much perseverance to shield it from a mere
superficial habit of noticing. Let his adventures speak for themselves.
Amongst the greatest facts recorded here the Geographer will perceive
that the Doctor has placed it beyond doubt that Lake Nyassa belongs to
a totally distinct system of waters to that which holds Lake Tanganyika,
and the rivers running north and west. He was too sagacious to venture
the surmise that Tanganyika has a subterranean outlet without having
duly weighed the probabilities in the scale with his elaborate
observations: the idea gathers force when we remember that in the case
of limestone cliffs, water so often succeeds in breaking bounds by

boring through the solid rock. No more interesting problem is left to
solve, and we shall yet learn whether, through the caverns of Western
Kabogo, this Lake adds its waters to the vast northerly flow of rivers
we now read of for the first time, and which are undoubtedly amongst
the largest in the world.
I cannot close these remarks without stating how much obliged I am to
Mr. James Young, F.R.S., of Kelly, for having ensured the presence of
the Doctor's men, Chuma and Susi. Ever ready to serve his old friend
Livingstone, he took care that they should be at my elbow so long as I
required them to help me amidst the pile of MSS. and maps. Their
knowledge of the countries they travelled in is most remarkable, and
from constantly aiding their master by putting questions to the natives
respecting the course of rivers, &c., I found them actual geographers of
no mean attainments. In one instance, when in doubt concerning a
particular watershed, to my surprise Susi returned a few hours
afterwards with a plan of the whole system of rivers in the region under
examination, and I found his sketch tally well with