"You will understand that Her Majesty's Government attach more importance to the moral influence which may be exerted on the minds of the natives by a well-regulated and orderly household of Europeans, setting an example of consistent moral conduct to all who may congregate around the settlement; treating the people with kindness, and relieving their wants; teaching them to make experiments in agriculture, explaining to them the more simple arts, imparting to them religious instruction, as far as they are capable of receiving it, and inculcating peace and good-will to each other.
"The expedition is well supplied with arms and ammunition, and it will be necessary to use these in order to obtain supplies of food, as well as to procure specimens for the purposes of Natural History. In many parts of the country which we hope to traverse, the larger animals exist in great numbers, and, being comparatively tame, may be easily shot. I would earnestly press on every member of the expedition a sacred regard to life, and never to destroy it unless some good end is to be answered by its extinction; the wanton waste of animal life which I have witnessed from night-hunting, and from the ferocious, but childlike, abuse of the instruments of destruction in the hands of Europeans, makes me anxious that this expedition should not be guilty of similar abominations.
"It is hoped that we may never have occasion to use our arms for protection from the natives, but the best security from attack consists in upright conduct, and the natives seeing that we are prepared to meet it. At the same time, you are strictly enjoined to exercise the greatest forbearance toward the people; and, while retaining proper firmness in the event of any misunderstanding, to conciliate, as far as possibly can be done with safety to our party.
"It is unnecessary for me to enjoin the strictest justice in dealing with the natives. This your own principles will lead you invariably to follow, but while doing so yourself, it is decidedly necessary to be careful not to appear to overreach or insult any one by the conduct of those under your command....
"The chiefs of tribes and leading men of villages ought always to be treated with respect, and nothing should be done to weaken their authority. Any present of food should be accepted frankly, as it is impolitic to allow the ancient custom of feeding strangers to go into disuse. We come among them as members of a superior race, and servants of a Government that desires to elevate the more degraded portions of the human family. We are adherents of a benign, holy religion, and may, by consistent conduct, and wise, patient efforts, become the harbingers of peace to a hitherto distracted and trodden-down race. No great result is ever attained without patient, long-continued effort. In the enterprise in which we have the honor to be engaged, deeds of sympathy, consideration, and kindness, which, when viewed in detail, may seem thrown away, if steadily persisted in, are sure, ultimately, to exercise a commanding influence. Depend upon it, a kind word or deed is never lost."

Evidently, Dr. Livingstone felt himself in a difficult position at the head of this enterprise. He was aware of the trouble that had usually attended civil as contrasted with naval and military expeditions, from the absence of that habit of discipline and obedience which is so firmly established in the latter services. He had never served under Her Majesty's Government himself, nor had he been accustomed to command such men as were now under him, and there were some things in his antecedents that made the duty peculiarly difficult. On one thing only he was resolved: to do his own duty to the utmost, and to spare no pains to induce every member of the Expedition to do his. It was impossible for him not to be anxious as to how the team would pull together, especially as he knew well the influence of a malarious atmosphere in causing intense irritability of temper. In some respects, though not the most obvious, this was the most trying period of his life. His letters and other written papers show one little but not uninstructive effect of the pressure and distraction that now came on him--in the great change which his handwriting underwent--the neat, regular writing of his youth giving place to a large and heavyish hand, as if he had never had time to mend his pen, and his only thought had been how to get on most quickly. Yet we see also, very clearly, how nobly he strove after self-control and conciliatory ways. The tone of courtesy, the recognition of each man's independence in his own sphere, and the appeal to his good sense and good feeling, apparent in the instructions, show a studious desire, while he took and intended to keep his place as Commander, to conceal the symbols of authority, and bind the members of the party together as a band of brothers. And though in his published book, The Zambesi and its Tributaries, which was mainly a report of his doings to the Government and the nation, he confined himself to the matters with which he had been intrusted by them, there are many little proofs of his seeking wisdom and strength from above with undiminished earnestness, and of his striving, as much as ever, to do all to the glory of God.

As the swift motion of the ship bears him farther and farther from home, he cannot but think of his orphan children. As they near Sierra Leone, on the 25th March, he sends a few lines to his eldest son:

"MY DEAR ROBERT,--We have been going at the rate of 200 miles a day ever since we left Liverpool, and have been much favored by a kind Providence in the weather. Poor Oswell was sorely sick while rolling through the Bay of Biscay, and ate nothing for about three days; but we soon got away from the ice and snow to beautiful summer weather, and we are getting nicely thawed. We sleep with all our port-holes open, and are glad of the awning by day. At night we see the Southern Cross; and the Pole Star, which stands so high over you, is here so low we cannot see it for the haze. We shall not see it again, but the same almighty gracious Father is over all, and is near to all who love Him. You are now alone in the world, and must seek his friendship and guidance, for if you do not lean on Him, you will go astray, and find that the way of transgressors is hard. The Lord be gracious to you, and accept you, though unworthy of his favor."

Sierra Leone was reached in a fortnight. Dr. Livingstone was gratified to learn that, during the last ten years, the health of the town had improved greatly--consequent on the abatement of the "whisky fever," and the draining and paving of the streets through the activity of Governor Hill. He found the Sunday as well kept as in Scotland, and was sure that posterity would acknowledge the great blessing which the operations of the English Squadron on the one hand and the various Christian missions on the other had effected. He was more than ever convinced, notwithstanding all that had been said against it, that the English Squadron had been a great blessing on the West Coast. The Christian missions, too, that had been planted under the protection of the Squadron, were an evidence of its beneficial influence. He used constantly to refer with intense gratitude to the work of Lord Palmerston in this cause, and to the very end of his life his Lordship was among the men whose memory he most highly honored. Often, when he wished to describe his aim briefly, in regard to slavery, commerce, and missions, he would say it was to do on the East Coast what had been done on the West. At Sierra Leone a crew of twelve Kroomen was engaged and taken on board for the navigation of the "Ma-Robert," after it should reach the Zambesi. On their leaving Sierra Leone, the weather became very rough, and from the state of Mrs. Livingstone's health, inclining very much to fever, it was deemed necessary that she, with Oswell, should be left at the Cape, go to Kuruman for a time, and after her coming confinement, join her husband on the Zambesi in 1860. "This," says Livingstone in his Journal, "is a great trial to me, for had she come on with us, she might have proved of essential service to the Expedition in case of sickness or otherwise; but it may all turn out for the best." It was the first disappointment, and it was but partially balanced by his learning from Dr. Moffat, who, with his wife, met them at the Cape, that he had made out his visit to Mosilikatse, and had learned that the men whom Livingstone had left at Tette had not returned home, so that they would still be waiting for him there. He knew of what value they would be to him in explaining his intentions to the natives. From Sir George Grey, the excellent Governor of the Cape, and the inhabitants of Cape Town generally, the Expedition met with an unusually cordial reception. At a great meeting at the Exchange, a silver box containing a testimonial of eight hundred guineas was presented to Livingstone by the Governor; and two days after, a grand dinner was given to the members of the Expedition, the Attorney-General being in the chair. Mr. Maclear was most enthusiastic in the reception of his friend, and at the public meeting had so much to say about him that he could hardly be brought to a close. It must have been highly amusing to Livingstone to contrast Cape Town in 1852 with Cape Town in 1858. In 1852 he was so suspected that he could hardly get a pound of gunpowder or a box of caps while preparing for his unprecedented journey, and he had to pay a heavy fine to get rid of a cantankerous post-master. Now he returns with the Queen's gold band round his cap, and with brighter decorations round his name than Sovereigns can give; and all Cape Town hastens to honor him. It was a great victory, as it was also a striking illustration of the world's ways.

It is not our object to follow Dr. Livingstone into all the details of his Expedition, but merely to note a few of the more salient points, in connection with the opportunities it afforded for the achievement of his object and the development of his character. It may he well to note here generally how the years were occupied. The remainder of 1858 was employed in exploring the mouths of the Zambesi, and the river itself up to Tette and the Kebrabasa Rapids, a few miles beyond. Next year--1859--was devoted mainly to three successive trips on the river Shiré, the third being signalized by the discovery of Lake Nyassa. In 1860 Livingstone went back with his Makololo up the Zambesi to the territories of Sekelétu. In 1861, after exploring the river Rovuma, and assisting Bishop Mackenzie to begin the Universities' Mission, he started for Lake Nyassa, returning to the ship toward the end of the year. In 1862 occurred the death of the Bishop and other missionaries, and also, during a detention at Shupanga, the death of Mrs. Livingstone: in the latter part of the year Livingstone again explored the Rovuma. In 1863 he was again exploring the Shiré Valley and Lake Nyassa, when an order came from Her Majesty's Government, recalling the Expedition. In 1864 he started in the "Lady Nyassa" for Bombay, and thence returned to England.

On the 1st May, 1858, the "Pearl" sailed from Simon's Bay, and on the 14th stood in for the entrance to the Zambesi, called the West Luabo, or Hoskins's Branch. Of their progress Dr. Livingstone gives his impressions in the following letter to his friend Mr. James Young:

"'PEARL,'10th May, 1858.
"Here we are, off Cape Corrientes ('Whaur's that, I wonner?'), and hope to be off the Luabo four days hence. We have been most remarkably favored in the weather, and it is well, for had our ship been in a gale with all this weight on her deck, it would have been perilous. Mrs. Livingstone was sea-sick all the way from Sierra Leone, and got as thin as a lath. As this was accompanied by fever, I was forced to run into Table Bay, and when I got ashore I found her father and mother down all the way from Kuruman to see us and help the young missionaries, whom the London Missionary Society has not yet sent. Glad, of course, to see the old couple again. We had a grand to-do at the Cape. Eight hundred guineas were presented in a silver box by the hand of the Governor, Sir George Grey, a fine fellow. Sure, no one might be more thankful to the Giver of all than myself. The Lord grant me grace to serve Him with heart and soul--the only return I can make!... It was a bitter parting with my wife, like tearing the heart out of one. It was so unexpected; and now we are screwing away up the coast.... We are all agreeable yet, and all looking forward with ardor to our enterprise. It is likely that I shall come down with the 'Pearl' through the Delta to doctor them if they become ill, and send them on to Ceylon with a blessing. All have behaved well, and I am really thankful to see it, and hope that God will graciously make some better use of us in promoting his glory. I met a Dr. King in Simon's Bay, of the 'Cambrian' frigate, one of our class-mates in the Andersonian. This frigate, by the way, saluted us handsomely when we sailed out. We have a man-of-war to help us (the 'Hermes'), but the lazy muff is far behind. He is, however, to carry our despatches to Quilimane...."

A letter to Dr. Moffat lets us know in what manner he was preparing to teach the twelve Kroomen who were to navigate the "Ma-Robert," and his old Makololo men:

"First of all, supposing Mr. Skead should take this back by the 'Hermes' in time to catch you at the Cape, would you be kind enough to get a form of prayer printed for me? We have twelve Kroomen, who seem docile and willing to be taught; when we are parted from the 'Pearl' we shall have prayers with them every morning.... I think it will be an advantage to have the prayers in Sichuana when my men join us, and if we have a selection from the English Litany, with the Lord's Prayer in Sichuana, all may join. Will you translate it, beginning at 'Remember not, Lord, our offenses,' up to 'the right way'? Thence, petition for chiefs, and on to the end.... The Litany need not be literal. I suppose you are not a rabid nonconformist, or else I would not venture to ask this...."