Invariably as he goes along, Dr. Livingstone aims at two things: at teaching some of the great truths of Christianity, and rousing consciences on the atrocious guilt of the slave-trade. In connection with the former he discovers that his usual way of conducting divine service--by the reading of prayers--does not give ignorant persons any idea of an unseen Being; kneeling and praying with the eyes shut is better. At the foot of the lake he goes out of his way to remonstrate with Mukaté, one of the chief marauders of the district. The tenor of his addresses is in some degree shaped by the practices he finds so prevalent:
"We mention our relationship to our Father, the guilt of selling any of his children, the consequences:--e.g. it begets war, for as they don't like to sell their own, they steal from other villagers, who retaliate. Arabs and Waiyau, invited into the country by their selling, foster feuds,--wars and depopulation ensue. We mention the Bible--future state--prayer; advise union, that they would unite as one family to expel enemies, who came first as slave-traders, and ended by leaving the country a wilderness."
It was about this time that Wikatani, one of the two Waiyau boys who had been rescued from slavery, finding, as he believed or said, some brothers and sisters on the western shore of the lake, left Livingstone and remained with them. There had been an impression in some quarters, that, according to his wont, Livingstone had made him his slave; to show the contrary, he gave him his choice of remaining or going, and, when the boy chose to remain, he acquiesced.
Dr. Livingstone had ere now passed over the ground where, if anywhere, he might have hoped to find a station for a commercial and missionary settlement, independent of the Portuguese. In this hope he was rather disappointed. The only spot he refers to is the district west of Mataka's, which, however, was so difficult of access. Nearer the coast a mission might be established, and to this project his mind turned afterward; but it would not command the Nyassa district. On the whole he preferred the Zambesi and Shiré valley, with all their difficulties. But the Rovuma was not hopeless, and indeed, within the last few years, the Universities Mission has occupied the district successfully.
The geographical question of the watershed had now to be grappled with. It is natural to ask whether this question was of sufficient importance to engage his main energies, and justify the incalculable sacrifices undergone by him during the remaining six years of his life. First of all, we must remember, it was not his own scheme--it was pressed on him by Sir Roderick Murchison and the Geographical Society; and it may perhaps be doubted whether, had he foreseen the cost of the enterprise, he would have deemed the object worthy of the price. But ever and anon, he seemed to be close on what he was searching for, and certain to secure it by just a little further effort; while as often, like the cup of Tantalus, it was snatched from his grasp. Moreover, during a life-time of splendid self-discipline, he had been training himself to keep his promises, and to complete his tasks; nor could he in any way see it his duty to break the one or leave the other unfinished. He had undertaken to the Geographical Society to solve that problem, and he would do it if it could be done. Wherever he went he had always some opportunity to make known the father-hood of God and his love in Christ, although the seed he sowed seemed seldom to take root. Then he was gathering fresh information on the state of the country and the habits of the people. He was especially gathering information on the accursed slave-trade.
This question of the watershed, too, had fascinated his mind, for he had a strong impression that the real sources of the Nile were far higher than any previous traveler had supposed--far higher than Lake Victoria Nyanza, and that it would be a service to religion as well as science to discover the fountains of the stream on whose bosom, in the dawn of Hebrew history, Moses had floated in his ark of bulrushes. A strong impression lurked in his mind that if he should only solve that old problem he would acquire such influence that new weight would be given to his pleadings for Africa; just as, at the beginning of his career, he had wished for a commanding style of composition, to be able to rouse the attention of the world to that ill-treated continent.
He was strongly disposed to think that in the account of the sources given to Herodotus by the Registrar of Minerva in the temple of Saïs, that individual was not joking, as the father of history supposed. He thought that in the watershed the two conical hills, Crophi and Mophi might be found, and the fountains between them which it was impossible to fathom; and that it might be seen that from that region there was a river flowing north to Egypt, and another flowing south to a country that might have been called Ethiopia. But whatever might be his views or aims, it was ordained that in the wanderings of his last years he should bring within the sympathies of the Christian world many a poor tribe otherwise unknown; that he should witness sights, surpassing all he had ever seen before of the inhumanity and horrors of the slave-traffic--sights that harrowed his inmost soul; and that when his final appeal to his countrymen on behalf of its victims came, not from, his living voice but from his tomb, it should gather from a thousand touching associations a thrilling power that would rouse the world, and finally root out the accursed thing.
A very valuable testimony was borne by Sir Bartle Frere to the real aims of Livingstone, and the value of his work, especially in this last journey, in a speech delivered in the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 10th November, 1876:
"The object," he said, "of Dr. Livingstone's geographical and scientific explorations was to lead his countrymen to the great work of Christianizing and civilizing the millions of Central Africa. You will recollect how, when first he came back from his wonderful journey, though we were all greatly startled by his achievements and by what he told us, people really did not lay what he said much to heart. They were stimulated to take up the cause of African discovery again, and other travelers went out and did excellent service; but the great fact which was from the very first upon Livingstone's mind, and which he used to impress upon you, did not make the impression he wished, and although a good many people took more and more interest in the Civilization of Africa and in the abolition of the slave-trade, which he pointed out was the great obstacle to all progress, still it did not come home to the people generally. It was not until his third and last journey, when he was no more to return among us, that the descriptions which he gave of the horrors of the slave-trade in the interior really took hold upon the mind of the people of this country, and made them determine that what used to be considered the crotchet of a few religious minds and humanitarian sort of persons, should be a phase of the great work which this country had undertaken, to free the African races, and to abolish, in the first place, the slave-trade by sea, and then, as we hope, the slaving by land."
In September an Arab slaver was met at Marenga's, who told Musa, one of the Johanna men, that all the country in front was full of Mazitu, a warlike tribe; that forty-four Arabs and their followers had been killed by them at Kasunga, and that he only had escaped. Musa's heart was filled with consternation. It was in vain that Marenga assured him that there were no Mazitu in the direction in which he was going, and that Livingstone protested to him that he would give them a wide berth. The Johanna men wanted an excuse for going back, but in such a way that, when they reached Zanzibar, they should get their pay. They left him in a body, and when they got to Zanzibar, circulated a circumstantial report that he had been murdered. In December, 1866, Musa appeared at Zanzibar, and told how Livingstone had crossed Lake Nyassa to its western or northwestern shore, and was pushing on west or northwest, when, between Marenga and Maklisoora, a band of savages stopped their way, and rushed on him and his small band of followers, now reduced to twenty. Livingstone fired twice, and killed two; but, in the act of reloading, three Mafite leaped upon him through the smoke, one of them felled him with an axe-cut from behind, and the blow nearly severed his head from his body. The Johanna men fled into the thick jungle, and miraculously escaped. Returning to the scene of the tragedy, they found the body of their master, and in a shallow grave dug with some stakes, they committed his remains to the ground, Many details were given regarding the Sepoys, and regarding the after fortunes of Musa and his companions. Under cross-examination Musa stood firmly to his story, which was believed both by Dr. Seward and Dr. Kirk, of Zanzibar. But when the tidings reached England, doubt was thrown on them by some of those best qualified to judge. Mr. Edward D. Young, who had had dealings with Musa, and knew him to be a liar, was suspicious of the story; so was Mr. Horace Waller. Sir Roderick Murchison, too, proclaimed himself an unbeliever, notwithstanding all the circumstantiality and apparent conclusiveness of the tale. The country was resounding with lamentations, the newspapers were full of obituary notices, but the strong-minded disbelievers were not to be moved.