The Personal Life of David Livingstone / Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His Family

by William Garden Blaikie

While waiting here he received a letter from Bishop Tozer, the successor of Bishop Mackenzie, informing him that he had resolved to abandon the Mission on the continent and transfer operations to Zanzibar. Dr. Livingstone had very sincerely welcomed the new Bishop, and at first liked him, and thought that his caution would lead to good results. Indeed, when he saw that his own scheme was destroyed by the Portuguese, he had great hopes that what he had been defeated in, the Mission would accomplish. Some time before, his hopes had begun to wane, and now the news conveyed in Bishop Tozer's letter was their death-blow. In his reply he implored the Bishop to reconsider the matter. After urging strongly some considerations bearing on the duty of missionaries, the reputation of Englishmen, and the impression likely to be made on the native mind, he concluded thus: "I hope, dear Bishop, you will not deem me guilty of impertinence in thus writing to you with a sore heart. I see that if you go, the last ray of hope for this wretched, trodden-down people disappears, and I again from the bottom of my heart entreat you to reconsider the matter, and may the All-wise One guide to that decision which will be most for his glory."

And thus, for Livingstone's life-time, ended the Universities Mission to Central Africa, with all the hopes which its bright dawn had inspired, that the great Church of England would bend its strength against the curse of Africa, and sweep it from the face of the earth. Writing to Sir Thomas Maclear, he said that he felt this much more than his own recall. He could hardly write of it; he was more inclined "to sit down and cry." No mission had ever had such bright prospects; notwithstanding all that had been said against it, he stood by the climate as firmly as ever, and if he were only young, he would go himself and plant the gospel there. It would be done one day without fail, though he might not live to see it.

As usual, Livingstone found himself blamed for the removal of the Mission. The Makololo had behaved badly, and they were Livingstone's people. "Isn't it interesting," he writes to Mr. Moore, "to get blamed for everything? But I must be thankful in feeling that I would rather perish than blame another for my misdeeds and deficiencies."

We have lost sight of Dr. Stewart and the projected mission of the Free Church of Scotland. As Dr. Livingstone's arrangements did not admit of his accompanying Dr. Stewart up the Shiré, he set out alone, falling in afterward with the Rev. Mr. Scudamore, a member, and as we have already said ultimately a martyr, of the Universities Mission. The report which Dr. Stewart made of the prospects of a mission was that, owing to the disturbed state of the country, no immediate action could be taken. Livingstone seemed to think him hasty in this conclusion. The scheme continued to be ardently cherished, and some ten or twelve years after--in 1874--in the formation of the "Livingstonia" mission and colony, a most promising and practical step was taken toward the fulfillment of Dr. Livingstone's views. Dr. Stewart has proved one of the best friends and noblest workers for African regeneration both at Lovedale and Livingstonia--a strong man on whom other men may lean, with his whole heart in the cause of Africa.

In the breaking up of the Universities Mission, it was necessary that some arrangement should be made on behalf of about thirty boys and a few helpless old persons and others, a portion of the rescued slaves, who had been taken under the charge of the Mission, and could not be abandoned. The fear of the Portuguese seemed likely to lead to their being left behind. But Livingstone could not bear the idea. He thought it would be highly discreditable to the good name of England, and an affront to the memory of Bishop Mackenzie, to "repudiate" his act in taking them under his protection. Therefore, when Bishop Tozer would not accept the charge, he himself took them in hand, giving orders to Mr. E.D. Young (as he says in his Journal), "in the event of any Portuguese interfering with them in his absence, to pitch him over-board!" Through his influence arrangements were made, as we shall see, for conveying them to the Cape. Mr. R.M. Ballantyne, in his Six Months at the Cape, tells us that he found, some years afterward, among the most efficient teachers in St. George's Orphanage, Cape Town, one of these black girls, named Dauma, whom Bishop Mackenzie had personally rescued and carried on his shoulders, and whom Livingstone now rescued a second time.

Livingstone's plan for himself was to sail to Bombay in the "Lady Nyassa," and endeavor to sell her there, before returning home. The Portuguese would have liked to get her, to employ her as a slaver--"But," he wrote to his daughter (10th August, 1863), "I would rather see her go down to the depths of the Indian Ocean than that. We have not been able to do all that we intended for this country, owing to the jealousy and slave-hunting of the Portuguese. They have hindered us effectually by sweeping away the population into slavery. Thousands have perished, and wherever we go human skeletons appear. I suppose that our Government could not prevail on the Portuguese to put a stop to this; so we are recalled. I am only sorry that we ever began near these slavers, but the great men of Portugal professed so loudly their eager desire to help us (and in the case of the late King I think there was sincerity), that I believed them, and now find out that it was all for show in Europe.... If missions were established as we hoped, I should still hope for good being done to this land, but the new Bishop had to pay fourpence for every pound weight of calico he bought, and calico is as much currency here as money is in Glasgow. It looks as if they wished to prohibit any one else coming, and, unfortunately, Bishop Tozer, a good man enough, lacks courage.... What a mission it would be if there were no difficulties--nothing but walking about in slippers made by admiring young ladies! Hey! that would not suit me. It would give me the doldrums; but there are many tastes in the world."

Looking back on the work of the last six years, while deeply grieved that the great object of the Expedition had not been achieved, Dr. Livingstone was able to point to some important results:

1. The discovery of the Kongone harbor, and the ascertaining of the condition of the Zambesi River, and its fitness for navigation.

2. The ascertaining of the capacity of the soil. It was found to be admirably adapted for indigo and cotton, as well as tobacco, castor-oil, and sugar. Its great fertility was shown by its gigantic grasses, and abundant crops of corn and maize. The highlands were free from tsetse and mosquitoes. The drawback to all this was the occurrence of periodical droughts, once every few years.

But every fine feature of the country was bathed in gloom by the slave-trade. The image left in Dr. Livingstone's mind was not that of the rich, sunny, luxuriant country, but that of the woe and wretchedness of the people. The real service of the Expedition was, that it had exposed slavery at its fountain-head, and in all its phases. First, there was the internal slave-trade between hostile native tribes. Then, there were the slave-traders from the coast, Arabs, or half-caste Portuguese, for whom natives were encouraged to collect slaves by all the horrible means of marauding and murder. And further, there were the parties sent out from Portuguese and Arab coast towns, with cloth and beads, muskets and ammunition. The destructive and murderous effects of the last were the climax of the system.